


MOONDUST || harry potter

by velairs



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/F, F/M, Gryffindor, Harry Potter Has a Twin, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Retelling, Slytherin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-06-19 19:07:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 50,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15516555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velairs/pseuds/velairs
Summary: a retelling of harry potter focusing on the original characters I've created





	1. GRIMMAULD PLACE

**Author's Note:**

> ariana grande as avalon potter
> 
> theo james as theodore nott
> 
> lucy fry as sienna malfoy
> 
> lily collins as jupiter ashford
> 
> dua lipa as olivia johnson-black

It had been three since the dementor attack, Avalon laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to Harry breathing steadily from the bed next to hers, wondering what consequences would her brother have to face. Was he really going to be expelled for trying to defend himself?

She felt a weird, unpleasant feeling on her chest she recognized as guilt, she should have been there with her brother, but instead, she had been sitting on her room, reading a book, at the time it happened. If she had been there, would she be the one facing possible expulsion? Would they both be facing the same consequences?

A loud crash in the kitchen pulled her back from her thoughts. She sat up quickly, looking over at her brother. There was silence, then voices.

Thieves would keep their voices down, wouldn’t they? Her fingers closed around her wand as she slid off her bed and Harry followed her steps. There was a loud click and the door swung open. They saw people standing in the dark hall below, illuminated by the streetlight coming from the windows.

‘Lower your wand, it’s us,’ said a voice Avalon recognized as Remus Lupin.

Down in the hall, Avalon could make out only two faces, Lupin’s and the distorted face of Mad-Eye Moody.

‘Professor Moody?’ Harry said uncertainly, stepping closer to his sister.

‘I don’t know so much about “Professor”,’ growled Moody, ‘never got round to much teaching, did I? Get down here, we want to see you properly.’

Avalon’s hand found Harry’s in the dark and they made eye contact, hesitating for a second, they had a very good reason to be suspicious for they had been in company of an impostor for an entire year. 

‘It’s alright, we´ve come to take you away,’ Lupin said.

‘Why are we all standing in the dark?’ the voice was unfamiliar to them. ‘ _ Lumos. _ ’

A wand-tip flared, illuminating the hall and the woman holding the wand, she had a pale heart-shaped face and bright violet spiky hair.

‘Are you quite sure it’s him, Lupin?’ Moody said, ‘It’d be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?’

‘Avalon, what form does your Patronus take?’ Lupin asked.

‘A dragon.’

‘Harry?’

‘A stag,’

‘Yeah, that’s them,’ said Lupin.

‘We are leaving, right? Soon?’ Avalon asked once they were downstairs.

'Soon, we’re just waiting for the all-clear,’ answered Lupin.

‘Are we going to the burrow?’ asked Harry.

‘No, we’ve set up Headquarters somewhere undetectable,’

As they waited, Lupin introduced Avalon and Harry to the other eight wizards in the room. Kingsley, Tonks, Moody and others whom she had not paid enough attention to remember their names. She could not believe what was happening, after days without the slightest hint of a plan, suddenly there was a whole bunch of wizards to take them away.

‘How are getting there? I mean, wherever we’re going-’ Harry asked.

‘Brooms,’ said Lupin, ‘You’re too young to apparate, they’ll be watching the Floo Network and we can’t set up an unauthorized Portkey,’

‘Brooms?’ Avalon mumbled.

‘Don’t worry, we brought you one,’

‘That’s not the problem,’

‘She’s afraid of heights,’ Harry explained.

‘I’m not!’ She protested, throwing a hard look at Harry, ‘But I don’t like brooms, they make me feel like I’ll fall off!’

‘I don’t think we have a better option at the moment,’ Harry shrugged.

She took a deep breath and nodded, ‘Fine, but if I fall I will blame it on you,’

‘How would that be my fault?’

‘I don’t know! But it would be!’

‘Stop arguing and go get packed, we need to be ready when the signal comes!’ Moody growled and they ran upstairs to their room.

Most of Avalon’s belongings were already inside of her open trunk, but some books laid open on her bed. She and Harry quickly stuffed their things in their trunks in the best way they could manage and took it downstairs.

About five minutes later they were in the garden, waiting for the signal. Mad-Eye had put a Disillusionment Charm on both Harry and Avalon so now they took the same exact color and texture of the surface behind them. Moody explained how they were going to fly in close formation, while Tonks strapped their trunks and Hedwig’s cage to a harness hanging from her broom.

‘Mount your brooms, that’s the first signal!’ said Lupin sharply, pointing at the sky, high above them a shower of bright red sparks had flared among the stars.

‘Second signal, let’s go!’ said Lupin loudly, seconds later, as more sparks, green this time, exploded high above them.

 

After some awfully cold minutes, they landed on a deserted street, full of old-looking houses. Avalon meant to ask where they were, but Moody was busy putting out the street lights with something that looked like a silver cigarette lighter.

‘Borrowed it from Dumbledore,’ growled Moody, pocketing the Put-Outer. ‘That’ll take care of any Muggles looking out of the window, see? Here, read this, and memorize it.’

He thrusted a piece parchment on Harry’s hand and Avalon leaned in to read it. The handwriting was familiar to both of them. It said:

_ The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. _


	2. REENCOUNTER

Mad-Eye set fire to the small piece of parchment with the tip of his wand as a battered door emerged out of nowhere between numbers eleven and thirteen, followed by old walls and dirty windows. Lupin pulled his wand out and tapped the door once, they heard many loud metallic clicks and the clatter of a chain. The door swung open.

‘Get in quick, both of you,’ whispered Lupin ‘but don’t go far inside and don’t touch anything.’

They carried their trunks inside and the other filed behind them. Moody released the light back to the streetlamps and closed the door.

Moody tapped Harry and Avalon over their heads with his wand and the Disillusionment Charm lifted. There were hurried footsteps and Ron’s mother, Molly Weasley, emerged from a door at the end of the hall. She hurried towards them, beaming in welcome.

‘Harry, Avalon, it’s lovely to see you!’ she hugged them both before examining them critically, ‘you two must be hungry, but you’ll have to wait a bit for dinner, I’m afraid.’

She turned to the gang of wizards behind them and whispered urgently, ‘He’s just arrived, the meeting’s started.’

They walked past Harry and Avalon, who tried to follow them, but were quickly stopped by Mrs Weasley.

‘The meeting is only for Order members. Ron, Hermione and Nott are upstairs-’

‘Nott’s here?’ Avalon asked, raising her eyebrows in confusion.

‘Yes, I’m sure he’ll explain everything. Go upstairs and wait until the meeting is over, then we’ll have dinner. And keep your voice down in the hall.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t want anything to wake up.’

‘What d’you -?’

‘I’ll explain later, I’ve got to hurry, I’m supposed to be at the meeting - I’ll just show you where you’re sleeping.’

She led them upstairs, quietly, ‘They’re on the room on the right,’ she said and hurried downstairs once again.

Harry opened the door and they were both almost knocked down to the floor by Hermione, she had thrown her arms around them both, hugging them tightly.

Hermione had started speaking fastly about how they couldn’t expell Harry, but Avalon didn’t pay attention, her eyes had landed on a tall boy, standing in front of the bed, smiling at her. She felt her heart leap on her chest and she ran at him, wrapping her arms around him and he quickly did the same.

‘Nott!’ she let go of him and slapped him hard on his arm, ‘that’s for not telling me you were here! And for sending me useless letters me all summer!’

‘Ouch! I’m sorry, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn’t say anything!’ Nott argued, still he couldn’t help but smile at his best friend.

‘How did you get here? Your dad-’

‘He thinks I’m at Blaise’s house for the rest of the summer, he wanted me out of the house anyway.’

‘Hedwig!’ Harry had spotted the snowy owl on top of the wardrobe, hooting happily.

‘She pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this,’ Ron said, showing a half-healed cut on his index finger.

‘Oh, sorry about that,’ said Harry, ‘but we wanted answers, you know,’

‘We wanted to give them to you, mate, but Dumbledore made-’

‘Made you swear, I heard.’

‘He seemed to think it was best,’ said Hermione, cautiously, ‘Dumbledore, I mean.’

‘Right.’

‘I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles-’

‘Yeah? Have either of  _ you  _ been attacked by dementors this summer?’

‘Well, no - but that’s why he’s had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time -‘

So everyone had known they were being followed, except them.

‘Didn’t work that well, though, did it?’ said Harry, doing his best to keep his voice normal. ‘Had to look after myself after all, didn’t I?’

‘Harry.’ Avalon said in a tone that suggested a warning.

‘What is it? Don’t you agree with me?’

‘I do, but none of this is their fault!’ she sighed, “we’re going to leave you to solve this.”

She grabbed Nott’s hand and led him out of the room. She didn’t want to hear Harry fighting with his friends, besides she wasn’t really close to Ron and Hermione

Nott took her to the room where she would sleep with Ginny and Hermione, which was currently empty.

‘Why did you want to leave?’ Nott asks, closing the door behind him.

‘Uh?’

‘The room, why did you decide to leave it?’

‘Oh, I just didn't want to hear my brother and his friends bickering. He has been sort of  _ on edge  _ lately.’

‘And you haven’t?’

‘Well, yes, but I keep it to myself.’ She shrugged, ‘anyway, how did you convince your dad to let you come?’

‘I told him I was going to stay at Blaise’s house until class starts, it wasn’t hard really, I think he wanted me out of the house so his death eater friends could meet up there.’ His tone suggested disgust, but his face suggested indifference.

‘They’re going to your house? That’s incredibly stupid of your father.’

He furrowed his eyebrows at her, confused.

‘You’re underage, you can’t use magic, what if they tried to do something against you? It’s not like they care that you’re just a teenager!’ said Avalon as if it was completely obvious.

‘Seriously?’ He started to laugh, ‘you’re unbelievable, you know that? Your brother just got attacked by dementors a few streets away from where you were and you’re worried about me  _ possibly _ encountering a death eater?’

‘Oh, stop laughing!’

She grabbed a pillow from the bed and hit him with it, repeatedly, until he stopped laughing, grabbed a pillow and hit her with it too.

 

After dinner Harry and Avalon insisted on getting answers from the Order which made Molly and Sirius launch into a rather heated discussion, which ended with Molly letting them get only the necessary information.

Avalon, Ginny and Hermione laid on their beds, in the same room. 

‘So, how did you feel when you saw him?’ Ginny asked Avalon.

‘Who?’

‘Nott obviously!’

‘Oh, good, I mean, he’s my best friend of course I felt good!’

‘We all know you felt more than  _ good _ , you probably wanted to shove your tongue down his throat.’ said Ginny and Hermione started laughing.

‘I didn’t!’

‘Yes, you did! We don’t need to be geniuses to figure out that you fancy him!’ Hermione shot at her.

‘I don’t fancy him! He is just my friend!’

‘Liar!’ Ginny shouted and threw a pillow at her.

‘Ouch! I’m telling you the truth!’

‘You’re lying to yourself.’

‘I am not! Can we sleep now? I’m really tired.’

‘Fine, have nice dreams… about Nott.’ joked Ginny.

‘Oh shut up!’

Avalon was the first to fall asleep, she felt extremely tired but her mind was buzzing from everything she heard downstairs, from thinking about Nott, from everything.

 

In her dream she looked in a mirror, in a dark room, her hands were pale and her eyes were red and cold.  _ Voldemort’s _ .

She woke up sweating and panting, her hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming. She jumped off the bed and ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

With her hands over the sink, she stared at the mirror only to see her pale grey eyes staring back at her. She was still herself. 


	3. LATE NIGHT TALKS & THE TRAIN RIDE

It had been a few weeks since Avalon and Harry had arrived on Grimmauld place and, while Avalon liked to be there with Sirius, she really wanted to go back to school.

They had just had dinner and Avalon’s stomach was so full she thought that if she got up she would throw up, so she just lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. 

She had no idea where her friends were, her best guess was that they were downstairs, talking. 

_Why am I not there?_ _Oh, stomach ache,_ she reminded herself, but was that really the reason? Lately, she had found herself making up excuses to be left alone.

She let out a heavy sigh and let her mind wander to the last few weeks she’d spent there. They weren’t exactly boring, but they surely weren’t as  _ eventful _ as they usually are at Hogwarts.

She and her friends kept themselves busy though, they’d had a lot of cleaning up to do, since Sirius’ house had been empty for a long time and the house-elf, Kreacher, didn’t count as he didn’t do much, really.

One day, when they had finished getting rid of the Doxies on one of the rooms downstairs, Sirius had shown them the tapestry on the wall, it had his family tree on it.

‘You’re not on here,’ Avalon had said, furrowing her eyebrows at Sirius, ‘why?’

‘I used to be there,’ said Sirius, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. ‘My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home - Kreacher’s quite fond of muttering the story under his breath.’

‘You ran away? Where did you go?’ Harry asked.

‘Yeah, I was sixteen, I went to your dad’s place,’ he ran his hand through his long, unkempt hair, looking up as if he were remembering it, ‘his parents sort of adopted me as a second son.’

‘I’m guessing your parents were a real pain,’ said Avalon.

‘I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal.’

And then Sirius had launched on a not-so-long story about how his younger brother, Regulus, had become a death eater and was murdered on Voldemort’s orders.

She recalled how Sirius had been rather snappy and bitter recently, quite like her actually, they both didn’t like being confined in this house, although Sirius had to stay here much longer than she had.

Her mind went back to the day Harry had his trial, Avalon had to stay home and wait, every worst-case-scenario running through her head.

Nott had caught her pacing around her room and tried to calm her down, it wasn’t very effective.

Once Harry had gotten back he told them he had been cleared of all charges, ‘that was very predictable though,’ Avalon had said, although, deep inside, she felt extremely relieved.

And then, a knock at the door pulled her out of her thoughts, ‘Come in,’ she said.

‘Hi,’ said Nott, as he entered the room and closed the door behind him, ‘what are you doing here all alone? Everyone’s celebrating downstairs.’

They were celebrating Ron and Hermione being made prefects, which didn’t excite Avalon very much.

‘I just wanted some time to think, you know, before going back to school and all that.’

‘Oh… Uh, well, I can leave if you want.’

‘You can stay, I’ve done a fair amount of thinking anyway.’

‘Good, because I didn’t plan on leaving,’ he grinned and sat next to her.

‘Why aren’t  _ you  _ downstairs?’

‘I don’t know, I just feel like we haven’t talked a lot this summer and I sort of miss our talks,’ he shrugged.

‘When did you get so sentimental?’ She raised her eyebrows at him, but a small smile formed on her lips.

He simply rolled his eyes, laughing a little, ‘You are the worst person ever, why do I like you?’

‘Hm, I have absolutely no idea,’ she chuckled. She felt warm and content, something that happened every time she was around him. 

They stayed in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, none of them felt the need to fill it. It had always been like this, sometimes they’d talk non-stop for hours, and sometimes they’d stay in silence, thinking.

‘Everything has changed, hasn’t it?’ She blurted out, looking at him.

‘What do you mean?’ 

‘Voldemort is back, well, it has always been a possibility but now…’

He nodded to show that he understood her, ‘Yeah, I get that, but I don’t think that worrying about it right now will do much good, it’s not like we can do anything.’

She looked away, part of her knew he was right, but the other part wanted to do something,  _ anything _ .

‘I know what you’re thinking, I can see it in your face,’ said Nott, ‘you want to do something about this.’

‘Oh, do you read minds now?’

‘No, I just know you very well,’ he said with a grin, but his face quickly turned serious, ‘we can’t do anything, Avalon, believe me, I want to do something just as much as you do, but we can’t just mindlessly run into danger.’

‘Then what are we supposed to do? Sit and wait?’ She crossed her arms over her chest, she had gotten up and started pacing around the room, impatiently. Her stomach ache had been long forgotten.

‘Yes, that’s all we can do for now,’ he said and she started to protest, but he continued, ‘do you have any lead on You-know-who’s location? Do you know what he’s up to?’

She sighed, ‘why do you always have to be the voice of reason? Why can’t you just agree with me for once?’

‘Someone has to keep you from throwing yourself into danger all the time, so it might as well be me.’

‘What would I do without you?’ Her tone was sarcastic, but there was some honesty in her words.

‘Crash and burn,’ he reached for her hand and pulled her into his embrace, ‘things will get better soon, I promise.’

She wanted to ask him how he could promise something he couldn’t even be sure of, but something in his words gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling. Hope.

Maybe it wasn’t even his words, maybe it was just  _ him _ .

_ +++++ _

In her dream, Avalon found herself walking down a dark corridor ending in a locked door. She woke up with an annoying headache and a desperate Ginny.

‘Have you seen my Potions book?’ She asked when she realized Avalon was awake, ‘I’ve looked for it everywhere and I still can’t find the damn thing, Oh- found it.’ She pulled the book from under the bed and smiled to herself.

Avalon rubbed her tired eyes, she and Nott had stayed up very late, talking, until Hermione got annoyed and practically threw him out of the room.

_ ‘Whotimissit?’  _ She groaned, sitting up.

‘What?’ Ginny furrowed her eyebrows at her, ‘do you have something on your mouth?’

‘Nope, just tired,’ she managed to get the words out after a really long yawn, ‘I asked what time it is.’

‘Oh, I’m not sure, Mom says we’re almost late if that helps.’

‘No, it doesn’t!’ She quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom.

In less than thirty minutes, Avalon was ready and almost finished packing her trunk.

‘Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?’ She questioned, stuffing the rest of her belongings inside the trunk in the best way she could, and that’s not saying much.

‘I tried, but you told me to… Huh, what were the words you used? Oh, yeah,  _ fuck off!’  _ she smiled, playfully and hurried to help Avalon close her trunk.

‘You would’ve done the same,’ she shrugged and carried their trunks downstairs.

On their way out of the room, they found Harry, Ron, Hermione, Nott and the twins trying to carry all of their belongings downstairs.

‘HURRY UP OR WE WILL NOT MAKE IT IN TIME!’ Mrs Weasley bellowed as they all made their way to the first floor.

Sirius had insisted on going with them, in his animagus form of course - which was a great black dog - and Mrs Weasley clearly disapproved of his actions.

It took them twenty minutes to reach King’s Cross on foot and nothing more eventful happened during that time than Sirius scaring a couple of cats for their entertainment. Once inside the station they lingered casually beside the barrier between platforms nine and ten until the coast was clear, then each of them leaned against it in turn and fell easily through on to platform nine and three-quarters, where the Hogwarts Express stood belching sooty steam over a platform packed with departing students and their families.

‘It’s a wonder we made it in time,’ said Hermione, her voice full of relief, once they had said their goodbyes to those that came with them and gotten inside the train, ‘well, Ron and I have to go to the prefect carriage, see you later, Harry?’

‘Oh, right, fine,’ said Harry, but it didn’t seem fine at all.

‘Oh, cheer up,’ Avalon said, as Ron and Hermione walked away, ‘you can stay with my friends and I.’

‘Right, fine.’

‘You sound like a broken record,’ said Ginny, ‘c’mon, we’re not that bad.’

They started looking for their friends on the train, looking fastly through every compartment. In the very last carriage, they found Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood talking excitedly.

‘Hey,’ Avalon said, opening the compartment door and sliding in, followed by the rest.

‘Thank God! We were thinking you three wouldn’t show up- oh, hey Harry!’ Neville said, smiling.

‘Hi.’

‘Oh, Harry, this is Luna, she’s from Ravenclaw, she’s in my year’ Ginny introduced him to the blonde girl sitting next to Neville. 

‘Oh, hi,’ Harry said awkwardly.

‘Hey, Neville, what’s that?’ Nott asked, pointing at the plant next to Neville.

‘It’s a  _ Mimbulus mimbletonia _ , it’s really rare, my Great Uncle Algie got it for me in Assyria. I’m going to see if I can breed from it,’ he explained, looking at the plant as if it were a pet of some sort. None of them understood his fascination for the plant.

And then Nott, Avalon, Ginny, Luna and Neville emerged deep into conversation, which Harry quickly lost track of. He looked at his sister, she seemed extremely comfortable and happy around them, more than she’d been around Ron and Hermione, maybe even more than she’d been around him. It made him feel a sting of jealousy, he couldn’t understand why she seemed so comfortable around people who were so different than her.

Half an hour later a dark-skinned, tall boy turned up in their compartment.

‘Blaise! Hey!’ Avalon smiled brightly at him.

‘Hey, Avs, I was looking for you,’ he smiled back at her, Harry couldn’t help but notice that he was very handsome. He looked from him to his sister and wondered if something was going on between them.

‘Yeah? What for?’ 

‘I was wondering if you want to take a walk and uh… catch up,’ he scratched the back of his neck, there was a bit of nervousness on his tone.

‘Yeah, sure… Do you guys mind if I leave for a while?’ She turned to her friends and they all didn’t seem to mind her leaving.

She got up and followed Blaise out of the compartment. Ginny gave her a smirk and a thumbs-up on her way out.

‘How long has  _ that  _ been going on?’ Harry asked, curiously.

‘Since the Yule ball,’ Nott answered, he had a very annoyed look on his face and his arms were crossed over his chest.

‘Oh.’

‘Blaise is pretty nice,’ said Luna.

‘And pretty  _ nice looking _ too,’ added Ginny.

‘Can we talk about something else?’ Nott snapped, rolling his eyes.

‘Look, someone is jealous!’

‘Cut it out, Ginny, why would I be jealous?’

‘Because you like her? Or him, we don’t judge,’ Neville said, shrugging.

‘Oh, Neville, it’s clearly her! He has been in love with her since… well, always,’ Ginny said, laughing.

‘Can you two shut up about this already? I am not in love with Avalon!’ He snarled, growing more and more annoyed each second.

‘If you say so,’ Ginny shrugged and decided to drop the subject.

Nott didn’t say much about that, but Luna, Neville and Ginny kept talking about anything they could think of.

Harry stayed quiet, wondering why he and Avalon had grown apart, thinking that maybe it was his fault, after all, he even bothered to ask her about her friends.

That was going to be a long train ride.


	4. THE NOTE

Her blonde hair swirled behind her as she ran to her dorm, it was long and curled into perfection. 

And it pissed her off.

Sienna stormed into the Ravenclaw common room, walking past other students. She went straight up to the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

She looked at the mirror, her pale grey eyes stared back at her, her father’s eyes.

It had been three days since she got in the Hogwarts Express, three days since she had last seen her family. 

_ I shouldn’t care, I was the one who ran away,  _ she thought. 

She needed to cut off any connections she had with her family, but how could she do that when she looked so much like them? How could she move on when she still carried their last name?

She opened a drawer and searched for a pair of scissors.

_ +++++ _

She’d always had long hair, her parents never allowed her to cut it short, they said it would make her look like a boy.

Now, Sienna stared at her own reflection, her hair reached her chin, it was messy and only slightly wavy. She smiled and left the bathroom. Another wall was built between her and her family.

On her way out of the common room, Luna called her over to where she stood.

‘Hey Luna, what’s up?’

‘Fred told me to give you this,’ she handed Sienna a small piece of parchment.

‘Oh, thanks, see you around,’ she smiled at Luna and walked through the frame, unfolding the note.

_ S, _ __  
_ Meet me at the library _ _  
_ __ -F

Smiling, she shoved the piece of parchment somewhere in her robes and hurried to the library. 

Fred sat alone at one of the tables, his head rested on his hand and he had a bored look on his face.

‘Hey,’ said Sienna, sitting in front of him.

He furrowed his eyebrows at her, ‘you cut your hair.’

‘Uh, yeah, it needed a change… Do you think it looks weird?’

‘No, I like it, it suits you.’

She felt her cheeks grow warm, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t send letters this summer,’ she hastily changed the topic, looking away from him.

‘It’s alright, but why didn’t you?’

‘Uh, well, I wasn’t home, I left.’

‘What do you mean you left?’ He questioned.

‘I ran away from my house.’

‘WHAT?’

‘Shh!’ Madam Pince hissed at them.

Fred had jumped from his chair and offered his hand to Sienna, ‘come on, you need to explain to me how this happened, and I don’t want to be kicked out by Madam Pince again.’

With a sigh, she grabbed his hand and Fred pulled her out of the library, all the way to the Entrance Hall. They walked across the lawn, the sun was beginning to set, and sat under a tree.

‘So, what happened? Did they do something to you?’ asked Fred, eagerly.

‘What? No! My parents would never lay a hand on me, that’s not how it works with them.’

‘Oh, I just-’

‘Assumed, I know,’ she shrugged, ‘it’s more about what they believe in, I was tired of listening to them talking about their whole pure-blood mania.’

She ran her hands through her hair, resting her head against the wall, and continued, ‘besides, with You-Know-Who back in power my father will have to go back to him and it’s not something I want to see or experience.’

‘Where did you spend your summer then?’

‘Anywhere that would take me for the smallest money, I didn’t have time to rob a bank or something, all I could take was my father’s wallet,’ she smirked playfully, ‘I saw him on the platform when I was getting in the train, and he was  _ pissed.’ _

‘You could’ve asked me for help, I’m sure mum and dad would’ve let you stay with us!’

‘I’m not so sure they would, Fred, your parents hate my family, besides I had no idea where you were.’

‘Well, now anyone who says you’re not as wild as George and I can shut up, I mean, running away is pretty extreme,  _ Si _ .’

‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

_ +++++ _

It was almost curfew when Sienna made her way back to the Ravenclaw common room, she came to a halt when she saw her brother blocking her way.

‘Draco, what are you doing here?’ she asked, uneasily. She hadn’t talked to him since she ran away.

‘I’ve been wondering when, or even if you’d come talk to me,’ he put his hands inside his pockets and leaned against the wall casually.

‘You’re hurt,’ she noted.

‘No shit! You left me, Sienna!’

‘I asked you to come with me!’

‘And do what? Live on the streets? Beg one of your blood-traitor friends to take us in?’ He snapped.

‘You really can’t give up your privilege, can you? You’re just as bad as our parents!’

‘They’re not as bad as you think.’

‘Right, because joining You-Know-Who is totally the right thing to do,’ she said sarcastically, ‘you know what? Just leave me alone, pretend I don’t exist, I don’t care.’

She shoved him aside and walked back to her common room, leaving him alone in the corridor.

She went to her dorm and laid down on her bed. She was frustrated, angry, maybe even sad, she didn’t want things to be like that between her and her brother, they had always gotten along well.

‘I don’t care,’ she told herself, maybe if she kept telling herself that she would be able to believe it.


	5. DOLORES UMBRIDGE

Avalon was never one to stay quiet when times were bad, but lately, she found herself holding her words back.

Twenty minutes into their Defence Against the Dark Arts class and Umbridge had already lost all control over the students, ‘I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough -‘

‘And what good’s theory going to be in the real world?’ said Harry loudly, his fist in the air again.

‘Oh no,’ muttered Avalon.

‘This is school, Mr Potter, not the real world,’she said softly.

‘So we’re not supposed to be prepared for what’s waiting for us out there?’

‘There is nothing waiting out there, Mr Potter. Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?’ enquired Professor Umbridge in a horribly honeyed voice.

‘Hmm, let’s think ...’ said Harry in a mock thoughtful voice. ‘Maybe ... Lord Voldemort?’

Ron gasped; Lavender Brown uttered a little scream; Neville slipped sideways off his stool; Avalon put her hand on her face, out of frustration. Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch.

‘Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr Potter.’

The classroom was silent and still. Everyone was staring at either Umbridge or Harry.

‘Now, let me make a few things quite plain.’

Professor Umbridge stood up and leaned towards them, her stubby-fingered hands splayed on her desk.

‘You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead -‘

‘He wasn’t dead,’said Harry angrily, ‘but yeah, he’s returned!’

‘Mr-Potter-you-have-already-lost-your-house-ten-points-do-not-make-matters-worse-for-yourself,’ said Professor Umbridge in one breath without looking at him. ‘As I was saying, you have been informed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie.’

‘It is NOT a lie!’said Harry. ‘I saw him, I fought him!’

‘Detention, Mr Potter!’ said Professor Umbridge triumphantly. ‘Tomorrow evening. Five o’clock. My office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means, come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, “Basics for Beginners”.’

Professor Umbridge sat down behind her desk. Harry, however, stood up. Avalon felt like slamming her head against the table, instead, she merely shot him a warning look which he promptly ignored.

‘So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?’ Harry asked, his voice shaking.

‘Cedric Diggory’s death was a tragic accident,’she said coldly.

‘It was murder,’ said Harry. Avalon was almost begging for him to shut up, he was already in too much trouble, but a part of her wanted to listen to what he had to say, he had hardly spoken to anyone about this, not even to her. ‘Voldemort killed him and you know it.’

Professor Umbridge pulled a small roll of pink parchment out of her handbag, stretched it out on the desk, dipped her quill into a bottle of ink and started scribbling. Nobody spoke. After a minute or so she rolled up the parchment and tapped it with her wand; it sealed itself seamlessly so that he could not open it.

‘Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear,’ said Professor Umbridge, holding out the note to him.

He took it from her without saying a word and left the room, not even looking back at Ron and Hermione, slamming the classroom door shut behind him.

_+++++_

‘Avalon, we should go, we can-’

‘No, Nott, I need to talk to him!’ she interrupted.

She walked from one side to another, outside of Professor Mcgonagall’s office, waiting for her brother to leave.

Harry came out of the office, looking seriously frustrated, but still, it was nothing compared to his sister’s enraged face.

‘What. The. Hell. Were. You. Thinking?’ Avalon said, pausing slightly at each word, ‘you should have stayed quiet! Do you even know in how much trouble you could’ve gotten in?’

‘What are you going on about? I was just telling her the truth!’ He tried to justify himself, but Avalon only rolled her eyes in annoyance.

‘Don’t you get it? Umbridge will never listen to what you have to say, Harry! She works for the minister!’

‘Just because you’re too afraid to say something doesn’t mean I have to be too!’ He snapped at her.

‘I am not afraid!’

‘Then why were you cowering behind a desk instead of saying something? You know what happened that night!’

‘I was not cowering, I was being cautious!’

Harry seemed to be on the edge, he was so angry his face was red, while Avalon was stiff as a board, yet she forced herself to not look as angry and out-of-control as she felt.

‘Avalon,’ Nott hesitated, putting his hand on her shoulder, ‘stop or you two will end up hexing each other.’

Without another word, Avalon turned to leave.

‘Yeah, Avalon, run away. Typical.’ Harry scoffed.

That was all it took for her to snap. She turned so quickly Harry barely had time to react. With her wand in hand, she was one second away from hexing her brother.

‘Avalon, no!’ Nott quickly put himself in front of her, putting his hand on her right arm and lowering it to prevent her from hexing him or Harry.

‘What’s going on in here?’ They were all so caught up in their own little conflict they had not noticed Professor Mcgonnagal coming out of her office.

‘Nothing, Professor, just a small sibling-discussion,’ said Nott as Avalon quickly stuffed her wand into her robes.

‘Yeah, we were about to leave,’ added Harry.

And with that, Harry turned around and walked away.

_+++++_

Harry was on his way back to the Gryffindor Tower, after his detention with Umbridge, when his sister found him.

‘What do you want now?’ Harry, who was already in a bad mood, asked with an annoyed tone to his voice.

‘I just wanted to check on you,’ she shrugged, casually leaning against the wall.

‘I’m fine, you can go now.’

‘C’mon, Harry, don’t be such a-’ she stopped mid-sentence, raising her eyebrows, ‘what’s that on your hand?’

‘Nothing, I, uh, I accidentally scratched myself.’

‘Bullshit,’ she hastily grabbed his hand and pulled it towards her, examining the words carved into his skin, ‘she was supposed to only give you lines.’

‘She did,’ he said, flatly, ‘she had a _special_ pen for that.’

Avalon let go of his hand, clenching her fists, ‘I’m going to kill that toad looking old hag!’

‘Let it go, Avalon, there’s nothing you can do.’

‘I’ll figure something out,’ she turned around and walked away.

‘Avalon! Wait! What are you going to… Avalon!’

He sighed, rolling his eyes and made his way back to the Gryffindor Tower.

_+++++_

Avalon stormed into the Slytherin common room, slamming the door behind her, attracting the attention of the students who were still there. She spotted Blaise and Nott on the couch, talking, and quickly walked over to them.

‘What’s wrong?’ Nott asked, upon seeing her troubled face.

‘I’m going to kill that old hag!’

‘Three questions,’ began Blaise, sounding amused, ‘who are you going to kill? Why? And can I help?’

Nott nudge him slightly, ‘don’t encourage her!’

‘Umbridge! That toad-faced bi-’

‘Woah, what did she do now?’ Nott questioned.

She began explaining what happened, her tone showed annoyance, frustration, and anger, which was never a good combination for her.

‘Harry has a point, there’s nothing you can do,’ said Nott, after she finished her explanation.

‘Look, I’m not saying we should kill her, that’s too drastic, even for me,’ she said, ‘but maybe we can make her feel a bit… uncomfortable.’

‘And how are we supposed to do that?’ Conceded Nott.

She pulled a small, candy-like ball from her pocket, ‘I got this from Fred and George earlier, I was going to drop it on Pansy’s tea so maybe she would shut up about Malfoy, I think she’s obsessed with him, but I guess I found a new use for it.’

‘What does it do?’ Blaise asked.

‘It’s supposed to make your nose bleed long enough for you to get out of a boring class, but it’s one of their failed prototypes, so the nosebleed won’t stop for a day or so, I just need to sneak this into Umbridge’s morning teacup.’

‘That I can do,’ said Blaise, with a smirk.

‘I still don’t think this is a good idea, but I can’t stop you two, can I?’ Nott sighed, defeated.

‘No, you can’t, goodnight, boys,’ she smiled at them, got up and walked to her dorm.

‘She’s a whole lot of work, isn’t she?’ Blaise said, smiling too.

Nott gave one last sigh, rolling his eyes, ‘tell me about it.’


	6. HOGSMEADE

Olivia Black was not a jealous person by any means, but on that day, she found herself wanting to smash her head against the wall when Blaise mentioned his upcoming date.

‘You’re so quiet today, is something wrong?’ Sienna, her best friend, asked.

‘No, just thinking.’

‘Right, anyway, Blaise, what were you saying?’

‘You don’t listen to a word I say, do you, Sienna?’ Blaise complained, rolling his eyes, walking towards the library alongside the two girls.

‘No, not usually, but, for now, I’m all ears.’

‘Well, as I was saying, Avalon’s idea to get Umbridge to  _ take  _ some days off worked perfectly well and--’

‘Wait, that was you?’ Olivia asked, raising her eyebrows.

‘It was Avalon’s plan, but I did it, yeah.’

‘That was--’

‘Dangerous? I thought one of you might say that.’

‘Actually, I was going to say genius.’

‘Oh.’

‘I’m still a little annoyed you didn’t invite us to your little prank,’ Sienna crossed her arms over her chest.

‘I promise next time I’ll think about it.’

‘You better,’ Olivia chuckled, her bad mood seemed to have disappeared, at least for a while.

‘So, where are you taking Avalon Saturday?’ Sienna asked.

‘I thought about taking her to Madam Puddifoot’s, I’ve been told it’s quite romantic,’ said Blaise, shrugging.

‘No way, if I know Avalon well enough, and I do, she won’t like that very much, she’s not really into all that romantic stuff,’ advised Sienna, as they got into the library and found themselves an empty table.

‘Well, then we might just walk around I guess, maybe we can go to Zonko’s and buy some stuff to prank Nott, that’d be fun.’

‘Enough about this date! We get it, you have an active romantic life and we don’t!’ Snapped Olivia, rolling her eyes.

‘Damn, someone is jealous,’ Sienna said.

‘I am not jealous! I’m just annoyed,’ she argued.

That was a lie. She was jealous. 

Was she jealous of Avalon? No way. She had never had romantic feelings for Avalon, but she might have been developing some feelings towards Blaise that she didn’t even know about yet.

‘Fine, we’ll talk about something else,’ said Blaise, ‘I have a feeling that if we don’t, Olivia will slap both of us.’

Sienna chuckled, ‘now that’s likely.’

‘So, have  _ you  _ been experiencing any romantic feelings lately, Si?’

‘Let me translate, are you fancying someone?’ Olivia said with a small smirk, trying to ignore the bad emotions still bubbling within her.

‘Actually, yes, I think,’ she said, thoughtfully.

‘Oh, who?’ questioned Blaise.

Sienna scoffed at him, ‘there’s no way in hell I’m going to tell you, you’d just try to convince me to ask them out, and I don’t want to do that yet.’

‘We can’t say you’re wrong,’ Olivia shrugged.

And then, Madam Pince strutted towards them, a pile of books in her hand and an angry look on her face.

‘If you lot are going to just sit there and talk and bother everyone who’s trying to study, you might as well leave now!’

_ +++++ _

‘So, they’re like our pictures?’

‘No, well, they move like wizard pictures, but there’s nothing magical about them.’

It was almost time to go to bed, Avalon was sprawled out on one of the couches of the Slytherin common room, Nott was sitting on the other edge of it. She was trying to explain to him how Muggle movies worked, but she was having some difficulty in doing so.

‘How do they even work?’ He asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

‘You’ve never seen a Muggle movie in your life?’

‘No, my father forbids anything that’s made by Muggles to get in our house,’ he shrugged.

‘Well, your dad is a jerk, Muggle movies are great, my brother and I used to watch them when the Dursleys went out,’ said Avalon, a small smile on her face.

‘Do you miss that?’

‘Not really, I mean, those moments were nice and all, but staying with the Dursleys was hell.’

‘No, I meant… Do you miss spending time with your brother?’

‘Oh,’ she stopped to think for a moment, ‘sometimes, yeah, but a part of me just thinks we’re too different now.’

‘When we were younger we bonded over the fact that the Dursleys made our lives miserable,’ she explained, upon seeing his confused face, ‘we’d always hide together, or walk around the neighboorhood together, but now… well, he has his friends and I have mine, it’s just different, still, doesn’t mean I love him any less.’

‘Yeah, I understand that, but… don’t you think you two would still get along if you tried?’

‘We do get along, we’re just… he’s not the first person I think about when I need someone to talk to.’

‘Oh, and who might that be?’ 

‘You, obviously,’ she scoffed, in her head, that should’ve been obvious.

His face flushed slightly, ‘Oh.’

‘Don’t act so surprised, you’ve been my friend for years,’ she rolled her eyes, sitting up and looking at him, ‘you’ll always be my first choice, you know that.’

He smiled at her, ‘well, you’re mine too… I mean, you’re my first choice, not you’re  _ mine,  _ you’re not anyone’s-’

She started to laugh, ‘and now you ruined the moment.’

‘It wasn’t my intention,’ he said, laughing too.

‘I know,’ she said, grinning.

She laid down on the couch again, staring at the ceiling, her words were still stuck in her head. She didn’t lie, he was always her first choice, and when she said that she meant it in a friendly way, but now she wondered if it wasn’t more than that.

She decided to let go of that thought, she told herself she didn’t like Nott like that.

‘Blaise and I are going on a date tomorrow,’ she blurted out, ‘where do you think we should go?’

‘What?’ He raised his eyebrows.

‘Are you not listening to me?’

‘I am, I just didn’t know you two were  _ a thing. _ ’

‘We’re not, at least not yet,’ she clarified, ‘we’re just going on a date and we’ll see how it goes.’

‘Oh.’

‘Oh? That’s all you have to say?’

‘What did you expect me to say?’

‘I don’t know, I just wanted you to be more excited about this.’

‘Why?’ He asked, there was a tone of annoyance to his voice Avalon didn’t like.

‘Because you’re my friend! You should… Forget it, I’m going to bed,’ she rolled her eyes, getting up and walking up to the dormitories.

‘Avalon!’ Nott called after her, but she was already too far to hear it.

He sat back on the couch, resting his face on his hands, frustrated.

_ +++++ _

The next day, Avalon met Blaise at the Entrance Hall after lunch.

‘Shall we?’ He smiled at her, offering his hand for her to hold.

She held his hand and left the castle with him. As soon as they got outside the cold air hit her face, making her shiver, but she just shook it off and kept walking.

‘You didn’t tell me how you managed to slip that  _ candy  _ into Umbridge’s tea,’ recalled Avalon, looking down at her boot’s marks on the snow.

‘Oh it was easy, she loves me,’ he joked.

‘I’m pretty sure the only living beings Umbridge loves are her cats.’

‘She knows my mother, I think she hates me a bit less than other students,’ he shrugged, ‘so I was asking her about a part of the textbook during breakfast, when I handed the book I dropped the candy on her teacup.’

‘Smart.’

‘I have my moments,’ he smiled.

When they finally arrived on Hogsmeade, Avalon felt like she was about to freeze up.

‘Do you want to go get a coffee or a butterbeer?’ Blaise asked.

‘Yeah.’

The three broomsticks was packed with Hogwarts students, so Avalon and Blaise ordered their drinks and hurried out of the establishment.

‘That place is always so packed, it’s impossible to stay in there!’ she complained, drinking her coffee and instantly feeling warmer.

‘I see you don’t like crowds.’

‘They make me uncomfortable, but it’s not something I  _ can’t  _ deal with.’

‘Well, where do you want to go now?’ he questioned, taking a sip from his butterbeer.

‘How about Honeydukes? I need to buy Nott some Sugar Quills, he loves those, and I owe him an apology anyway.’

‘You guys fought?’

‘I was just kind of a bitch to him last night,’ she shrugged, she felt bad for snapping at him, so she needed to make up for it.

‘Let’s go then.’

Honeydukes was slightly less packed than Three Broomsticks, but still, Avalon didn’t feel completely at ease surrounded by that many people.

They didn’t take long in the store, but by the time they left Avalon didn’t have any coffee left in her cup and Blaise had already thrown away his. 

They decided to walk for a while since they had already gotten used to the cold weather.

‘I heard your brother got more detentions with the toad this week,’ Blaise said, holding hands with her.

‘Yeah, he did, I don’t think he has learned to keep his mouth shut.’

‘And I thought you would be the one to yell at Umbridge.’

‘Yeah, me too, but I think I’m good staying out of trouble for now.’

‘For now?’

‘Trouble usually finds me somehow, I think I’m some kind of trouble-magnet.’

‘Maybe you should go to Madam Pomfrey and get that checked out,’ he said, playing along with the joke.

‘Oh, and what will I tell her? Hey, Madam Pomfrey, I feel like I attract trouble, is there a cure for that?’

He laughed, ‘I think that’s exactly what you should say.’ 

She laughed, shaking her head. When she stopped laughing, her smile lingered, she was still worried about her argument with Nott, but for now, she was having fun.

‘Have you been talking to Olivia lately?’ Blaise asked, catching Avalon by surprise.

‘Sometimes, yeah.’

‘Has she been acting weird with you?’

‘No, not really, why?’

‘She has been acting distant whenever I’m around, I’m worried I might’ve done something.’

‘Maybe she’s just stressed, she’s taking N.E.W.T.s this year, so…’

‘Yeah, maybe.’

They kept walking, but Avalon couldn’t help but notice his troubled face. She came to a halt, letting go of his hand.

‘What’s wrong?’ He furrowed his eyebrows, turning to her.

‘Do you still like Olivia?’ She looked up at him, she was no longer smiling.

‘What?’

‘I won’t be angry if you do,’ she frowned, ‘I just don’t want to be the girl you use to forget someone else.’

He took a step towards her, ‘Avalon, I asked you out because I wanted to hang out with you, because I like your company… I like  _ you. _ ’

She smiled, looking up at him, ‘I’m happy to hear that.’

He smiled, then he leaned in, making the distance between them non-existent, and kissed her. His lips were still slightly cold from the low temperature, but she didn’t mind. She kissed him back, her arms wrapping around his neck, while his hand was on the small of her back, pulling her closer.

_ +++++ _

It was almost dark when Avalon found Nott on one of the staircases, she had gotten back from Hogsmeade not long ago.

‘Nott!’ She called out his name.

He sighed and turned around, ‘Yes?’

She ran up the stairs until she was on the same step as he was, ‘I was looking for you.’

‘Congratuations, you found me,’ he rolled his eyes.

‘Oh c’mon, I came here to apologize.’

‘You don’t do apologies.’

‘Not usually, but…’  _ You’re different,  _ ‘I was wrong to get mad at you, I was a bitch, and I’m sorry. I even bought you some Sugar Quills.’

‘That sounds like a bribe.’

‘It’s not a bribe, it’s… it’s an  _ I’m-Sorry-Please-Forgive-Your-Stupid-Friend-Gift. _ ’

‘Avalon, it’s a bribe… but I’ll take it.’

‘You will?’

‘Mhm,’ he nodded.

‘So, you forgive me?’

‘How could I not?’

She smiled, ‘where were you going?’

‘I was going to meet up with Ginny, Luna and Neville, wanna tag along?’

‘Definetely.’

‘Took you long enough!’ Ginny said, when they got there.

Ginny, Luna, and Neville sat in an empty corner close to the Astronomy Tower.

‘We were clearing up some things,’ Nott said, sitting next to Neville as Avalon sat next to Ginny.

‘How was your  _ trip  _ to Hogsmeade?’ Neville asked Avalon.

‘Oh, it was fun.’ She answered.

‘Did you two snog?’ questioned Ginny.

‘Ginny!’ Luna exclaimed.

‘What? I was curious!’

‘We didn’t  _ snog! _ ’ Avalon said.

Ginny raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

‘Fine, we did, a bit.’

‘Knew it! How was it?’

‘Can we not talk about my love lie?’

‘Okay, but expect more questions later.’

And then, Luna began talking about something she bought at Zonko’s, and soon they were all talking about anything they could think of.

It was way past curfew when they all went back to their common rooms. Nott had to practically drag a sleepy Avalon through the castle, to the Slytherin common room, where they laid on the two couches, across from each other, both too tired to go upstairs.

‘Hey, Nott,’ she said in a soft voice, sleep almost taking over her.

‘Yeah?’

‘I really am sorry for last night.’

‘I know,’ he smiled a little.

She smiled back at him and sleep quickly took over her, but Nott lay awake for a few moments, thinking, until he fell asleep too. His last thought was  _ her. _


	7. HOG'S HEAD

Avalon and Blaise were on the library, studying, when Harry came running in.

'Hey, I was looking for you!' He said, sitting in front of her, 'Uh, hey Blaise."

'Well, I think that's my cue,' Blaise said, picking up his things and getting up.

'Oh, you don't need to leave because of me.'

'I was already planning to go, I need to finish up my potions essay and I forgot it at my dorm,' explained Blaise. That was an excuse, Blaise wasn't friends with Harry, he didn't know him well, so staying there would make him uncomfortable. He turned to Avalon, 'see you later?'

'Yeah,' she smiled. He kissed her quickly, after checking his surroundings to see if Madam Pince wasn't looking, and left.

'How long has  _that_ been going on?' asked Harry, once Blaise had left.

'A few weeks, why?'

'I thought you liked Nott, well, at least that's what Ginny told me.'

'She's out of her mind, Nott is my friend. What are you here for anyway?' She clarified and quickly tried to change the subject.

'I just came here to talk.'

'I thought you were still mad at me about the whole Umbridge thing.'

'I'm not, I was for a while, but I'm not anymore.'

'Good,' her mouth curved into a small smile. Avalon felt relieved he wasn't angry anymore, she knew Harry could hold grudges sometimes.

Harry looked around, momentarily forgetting why he went there. The library was fairly empty, with only a few students here and there.

'Did Umbridge already inspect one of your classes?' Harry asked.

'Yes, she inspected History of Magic earlier today,' she began, 'she just sat in the back of the class taking notes, and then, at the end of the class she asked Professor Binns some questions.'

'She inspected Professor Trelawney's class yesterday, it didn't go well.' Harry grimaced, even talking about Umbridge made him feel angry and disgusted.

'What did she do?'

'She obviously thinks Trelawney is a fraud.'

'I hate to say this, but Umbridge might be right about that one.'

'I never thought you'd say that.'

'Me neither, I feel like I need to wash my mouth with soap now.'

Harry chuckled, 'I can cast  _Scourgify_ if you want.'

'Please don't, that would be awful,' she said, grinning, 'did Umbridge ask Trelawney a lot of questions? Or did she just leave?'

'She asked Trelawney for a prediction, all she could say was that Umbridge was in grave danger.'

'Typical.'

Harry smiled, it had been a while since he had talked to his sister, he missed spending time with her sometimes.

'Hermione had an idea yesterday,' he began, 'and it involves you.'

'What is it?' She furrowed her eyebrows, concerned.

'She thinks we should teach Defense Against the Dark Arts.'

'WHAT?' Avalon exclaimed, her voice echoing through the library, attracting attention from the other students.

'Shhh!' Hissed Madam Pince.

'Sorry,' she said quickly and then, turned to Harry, 'explain, now.'

Harry sighed, 'she said we should teach some students how to defend themselves, hidden from everyone, of course.'

'We're not professors, we can't teach anyone.'

'But we've been through a lot, we survived a lot, we could help others.'

'You think it's a good idea?'

'I'm not sure yet, but we need to think about it.'

She nodded, 'I promise I will, just wait a few days, okay?'

_+++++_

Back in the Slytherin common room, Avalon found Nott sitting on one of the chairs and told him about Hermione's idea.

'I think it's a great idea!' He said. His face lit up in excitement.

'You do?'

'Think about it, Avalon! You and Harry are at the top of the DADA class-'

'No, we're not.' She scoffed.

'Yes, you are, and you both faced far more than any of the other students.'

She frowned, 'I don't know about this, Nott, what if we... I screw up?'

'You won't, I know you won't.'

She managed to give him a small smile, she was glad he had that much faith in her, yet she did not believe she could teach anyone anything, she didn't have the patience or skills needed to do that.

Besides, with everything that happened the previous year, she did not think anyone would show up for classes with her and her brother.

' _If_ I decide to do this, will you be there with me?' asked Avalon.

'No, I'll just stay here and nap all day long,' he said sarcastically.

'You're the worst friend ever, you know that?' She shook her head and forced herself to her feet, 'I'm off to bed, goodnight Nott.'

'Goodnight, Potter,' he smiled at her as she walked up to the girls' dorm.

For two whole weeks, Avalon didn't mention the idea of her and Harry teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, but she thought about it a lot, sometimes it seemed like an insane idea, like it'd never work, yet, sometimes, she found herself thinking of how she could teach certain spells.

'So, have you decided?' asked Hermione one day, when she found Avalon on her way to Transfiguration class.

'Hm?'

'Will you teach Defence Against the Dark Arts? Did you at least think about it?'

'Yes, I did think about it. I'm not sure if it is a good idea, but I'll do it.'

'Really? Great! There'll be a trip to Hogsmeade this weekend, I think we should all meet at the Hog's head.'

'The Hog's Head?'

'Yeah, The Three Broomsticks is always packed, The Hog's Head is not on the main road and it's a bit  _dodgy,_ so students don't normally go in there.'

'Brilliant, I'll bring some of my friends.'

'Uh... I don't know if that's a good idea.'

'Why not?' She raised her eyebrows, she was pretty sure Hermione's answer was going to be along the lines of "your friends are not trustworthy".

'Avalon, we can't take chances, what if someone tells Umbridge about this?'

'I was just going to bring Blaise and Nott, they'd never tell anyone about this.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yeah, trust me, they both hate Umbridge as much as we do.'

_+++++_

The Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats. The bay windows were so encrusted with grime that very little daylight could permeate the room, which was lit instead with the stubs of candles sitting on rough wooden tables. The floor seemed at first glance to be compressed earth, though as Avalon stepped on to it he realized that there was stone beneath what seemed to be the accumulated filth of centuries.

Avalon, followed by Nott, Blaise, and Olivia, who decided to tag along, found Hermione, Harry, and Ron sitting on a big table, drinking Butterbeers.

'Are we the first ones to arrive?' Avalon asked, sitting next to Harry.

'Yeah,' said Ron. He turned to Hermione, 'who else is supposed to come?'

'Just a couple of people,' Hermione repeated, checking her watch and looking anxiously towards the door. 'I told them to be here about now and I'm sure they all know where it is - oh, look, this might be them now.'

The door of the pub had opened. A thick band of dusty sunlight split the room in two for a moment and then vanished, blocked by the incoming rush of a crowd of people.

First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Cho and one of her usually-giggling girlfriends, then (on her own and looking so dreamy she might have walked in by accident) Luna Lovegood; then Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff girl with a long plait down her back whose name Avalon did not know; three Ravenclaw boys he was pretty sure were called Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and Terry Boot; then Ginny, followed by a tall skinny blond boy with an upturned nose whom Avalon recognized vaguely as being a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and, bringing up the rear, Fred and George Weasley with their friends Lee Jordan and Sienna Malfoy, all three of whom were carrying large paper bags crammed with Zonko's merchandise.

'A couple of people?'said Harry hoarsely to Hermione. 'A couple of people?'

'Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular,' said Hermione happily. 'Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?'

The barman had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. Possibly, he had never seen his pub so full.

'Hi,' said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly, 'could we have ... twenty-five Butterbeers, please?'

The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty Butterbeers from under the bar.

'Cheers,' said Fred, handing them out. 'Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these ...'

Avalon felt like her stomach was tossing and turning inside of her as she watched the large chattering group took their beers from Fred and rummaged in their robes to find coins. She could not come up with a reason as to why so many people showed up. She looked at her brother, who seemed to be experiencing the same thing she was.

'What have you been telling people?' he said in a low voice. 'What are they expecting?'

'I've told you, they just want to hear what you've got to say,' said Hermione soothingly; but Harry continued to look at her so furiously that she added quickly, 'you don't have to do anything yet, I'll speak to them first.'

'Hi, Avalon,' said Neville, beaming, taking a seat next to Luna and Ginny.

In twos and threes, the new arrivals settled around Harry, Avalon, Ron and Hermione, some looking rather excited, others curious, Luna Lovegood gazing dreamily into space. When everybody had pulled up a chair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Harry and Avalon.

'Er,' said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. 'Well - er - hi.'

The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regularly to the Potter twins.

'Well ... erm ... well, you know why you're here. Erm ... well, Harry and Avalon here had the idea - I mean' (Harry had thrown her a sharp look) 'I had the idea - that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts - and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us -' (Hermione's voice became suddenly much stronger and more confident) '- because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts -' ('Hear, hear,' said Anthony Goldstein, and Hermione looked heartened) '- Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands.'

She paused, looked sideways at Harry, and went on, 'And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells -'

'You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too, though, I bet?' said Michael Corner.

'Of course I do,' said Hermione at once. 'But more than that, I want to be properly trained in defense because ... because ...' she took a great breath and finished, 'because Lord Voldemort is back.'

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho's friend shrieked and slopped Butterbeer down herself; Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch; Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry and Avalon.

'Well ... that's the plan, anyway,' said Hermione. 'If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to -'

'Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?' said the blond Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.

'Well, Dumbledore believes it -' Hermione began.

'You mean, Dumbledore believes  _them_ ,' said the blond boy, nodding at Harry.

'Who are you?' said Ron, rather rudely.

'Zacharias Smith,' said the boy, 'and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back.'

'Look,' said Hermione, intervening swiftly, 'that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about -'

'It's OK, Hermione,' said Harry.

Avalon narrowed her eyes at Harry, confused.

'What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?' he asked, looking Zacharias straight in the face. 'I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone.'

The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke. Harry had the impression that even the barman was listening. He was wiping the same glass with the filthy rag, making it steadily dirtier.

'All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts.' Zacharias said dismissively. Avalon felt like she was really close to punching him in the nose. 'He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know -'

'If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you,' Harry said. He did not take his eyes from Zacharias Smith's aggressive face, 'I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out.'

He cast an angry look in Hermione's direction. But none of them left their seats, not even Zacharias Smith, though he continued to gaze intently at Harry.

'So,' said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. 'So ... like I was saying ... if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to -'

'Is it true,' interrupted the girl with the long plait down her back, looking from Harry to Avalon, 'that you can produce a Patronus?'

There was a murmur of interest around the group at this.

'Yeah,' said Harry slightly defensively.

'A corporeal Patronus?'

'Uh, yeah.' Avalon said, her throat was so dry the words almost didn't come out.

'Blimey!' said Lee, looking deeply impressed. 'I never knew that!'

'Mum told Ron not to spread it around,' said Fred, grinning at the twins. 'She said you two got enough attention as it was.'

'She's not wrong,' mumbled Avalon, and a couple of people laughed.

'And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?' demanded Terry Boot. 'That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year ...'

'Er - yeah, we did, yeah,' said Harry.

Justin Finch-Fletchley whistled; the Creevey brothers exchanged awestruck looks and Lavender Brown said 'Wow!' softly.

'And in our first year,' said Neville to the group at large, 'he saved that Philological Stone -'

'Philosopher's,' hissed Hermione.

'Yes, that - from You-Know-Who,' finished Neville.

'And that's not to mention,' said Cho (Harry's eyes snapped across to her; his face turning to a bright shade of pink) 'all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year - getting past dragons and merpeople and Acromantula and things ...'

'Look,' he said, and everyone fell silent at once, 'I ... I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but I... We had a lot of help with all that stuff ...'

'Not with the dragon, you didn't,' said Michael Corner at once. 'That was a seriously cool bit of flying ...'

'Yeah, well -' said Harry, feeling it would be churlish to disagree.

'And nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer,' said Susan Bones.

'No,' said Harry, 'no, OK, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is -'

'Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?' said Zacharias Smith.

'Here's an idea,' snapped Avalon, before Harry could speak, 'why don't you shut your mouth?'

'Well, we've all turned up to learn from you and now your brother is telling us he can't really do any of it,' he said.

'That's not what he said,' snarled Fred.

'Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?' enquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags.

'Or any part of your body, really, Fred and George are not fussy where they stick that,' said Sienna.

'Yes, well,' said Hermione hastily, 'moving on ... the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?'

There was a murmur of general agreement. Zacharias folded his arms and said nothing, though perhaps this was because he was too busy keeping an eye on the instrument in Fred's hand.

'Right,' said Hermione, looking relieved that something had at last been settled. 'Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week -'

'Hang on,' said Angelina, 'we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice.'

'No,' said Cho, 'nor with ours.'

'Nor ours,' added Zacharias Smith.

'I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone,' said Hermione, slightly impatiently, 'but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters -'

'Well said!' barked Ernie Macmillan, who Harry had been expecting to speak long before this. 'Personally, I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our O.W.L.s coming up!'

He looked around impressively, as though waiting for people to cry 'Surely not!' When nobody spoke, he went on, 'I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher on us at this critical period. Obviously, they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells -'

'We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defence Against the Dark Arts,' said Avalon, 'is that she's got some ... some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry.'

Nearly everybody looked stunned at this news; everybody except Luna Lovegood, who piped up, 'Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army.'

'What?' said Harry, completely thrown by this unexpected piece of information.

'Yes, he's got an army of Heliopaths,' said Luna solemnly.

'No, he hasn't,' snapped Hermione.

'Yes, he has,' said Luna.

'What are Heliopaths?' asked Neville, looking blank.

'They're spirits of fire,' said Luna, her protuberant eyes widening so that she looked madder than ever, 'great tall flaming creatures that gallop across the ground burning everything in front of -'

'They don't exist, Neville,' said Hermione tartly.

'Oh, yes, they do!'said Luna angrily.

'I'm sorry, but where's the proof of that?' snapped Hermione.

'There are plenty of eye-witness accounts. Just because you're so narrow-minded you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you -'

_'Hem, hem,'_ said Ginny, in such a good imitation of Professor Umbridge that several people looked around in alarm and then laughed. 'Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and have defense lessons?'

'Yes,' said Hermione at once, 'yes, we were, you're right, Ginny.'

'Well, once a week sounds cool,' said Lee Jordan.

'As long as -' began Angelina.

'Yes, yes, we know about the Quidditch,' said Hermione in a tense voice.

'Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going to meet ...'

This was rather more difficult; the whole group fell silent.

'Library?' suggested Katie Bell after a few moments.

'I can't see Madam Pince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library,' said Avalon.

'Maybe an unused classroom?' said Dean.

'Yeah,' said Ron, 'McGonagall might let us have hers, she did when Harry was practising for the Triwizard.'

But Avalon was pretty certain that McGonagall would not be so accommodating this time. For all that Hermione had said about study and homework groups being allowed, he had the distinct feeling that this one might be considered a lot more rebellious.

'Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere,' said Hermione. 'We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting.'

She rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill, then hesitated, rather as though she was steeling herself to say something.

'I - I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think,' she took a deep breath, 'that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anybody else what we're up to.'

Fred reached out for the parchment and cheerfully wrote his signature, but Harry noticed at once that several people looked less than happy at the prospect of putting their names on the list.

'Er ...' said Zacharias slowly, not taking the parchment that Sienna was trying to pass to him, 'well ... I'm sure Ernie will tell me when the meeting is.'

But Ernie was looking rather hesitant about signing, too. Hermione raised her eyebrows at him.

'I - well, we are prefects,' Ernie burst out. 'And if this list was found ... well, I mean to say ... you said yourself, if Umbridge finds out -'

'You just said this group was the most important thing you'd do this year,' Harry reminded him.

'I - yes,'said Ernie, 'yes, I do believe that, it's just -'

'Ernie, do you really think I'd leave that list lying around?' said Hermione testily.

'No. No, of course not,' said Ernie, looking slightly less anxious. 'I - yes, of course I'll sign.'

Nobody raised objections after Ernie, though Avalon saw Cho's friend give her a rather reproachful look before adding her own name. When the last person - Zacharias - had signed, Hermione took the parchment back and slipped it carefully into her bag. There was an odd feeling in the group now. It was as though they had just signed some kind of contract.

'Well, time's ticking on,' said Fred briskly, getting to his feet. 'George, Lee, Sienna, and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later.'

In twos and threes the rest of the group took their leave, too. Avalon noticed Neville was talking to Nott eagerly, as if he were trying to convince Nott to do something. Avalon simply raised her eyebrows, then decided it was best to leave them alone.


	8. THE ROOM OF REQUIREMENT

She stormed into the boys’ dorm, raging like a thunderstorm.

‘Nott, you have to see this!’ She bellowed, standing on the doorstep.

‘Avalon, you can’t be in here!’ said Blaise with an amused expression on his face. He seemed to find her indignation entertaining, ‘Besides, Nott is already downstairs.’

‘Could you two lower your voice? I’m trying to sleep!’ Draco groaned, pulling the bed sheets up to cover his head.

‘Shut your mouth, Malfoy.’ She rolled her eyes and ran down the stairs.

She found Nott finishing up his Transfiguration homework on one of the desks on the far left of the common room.

‘Did you see it?’ She asked, plopping down on the chair in front of him.

‘Good morning to you too, Potter,’ he said, grinning.

‘Yeah, whatever, good morning. Did you see it?’

‘See what?’

She groaned in frustration, ‘the Educational Decree, you idiot!’

‘Woah, did you fall off your bed last night? You’re in an awful mood.’

She got up, walked up to the Slytherin noticeboard, ripped the large sign off of it and walked back to the table. ‘Read it,’ she demanded.

He furrowed his eyebrows, clearly not understanding why she was so agitated, then he began to read the Decree.

_ All student organizations, societies, teams, groups and clubs are henceforth disbanded. _ _   
_ _ An organization, society, team, group or club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students. _ _   
_ _ Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge). _ _   
_ _ No student organization, society, team, group or club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor. _ _   
_ _ Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an organization, society, team, group or club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.  _ _   
_ __ The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-four.

Once he finished reading, Nott looked up at Avalon, ‘do you think she knows about the meeting?’

‘I don’t know, it could be a coincidence,’ she said, although she highly doubted her own words. ‘Get up, we need to find Hermione.’

‘What? Why?’

‘If someone told Umbridge about what we did, Hermione must know.’

He nodded and they hurried out of the Common Room after Nott glued the sign back on the wall.

When they reached the Great Hall they noticed the recent decree had caused quite a fuss, students talking loudly, getting up and running to other tables to talk to their friends from other houses.

‘Did you see it?’ Asked Harry, once Avalon and Nott reached their table and sat down.

‘The decree? Yeah,’ Avalon said ‘do you think someone ratted us out?’

‘They can’t have done,’ said Hermione in a low voice.   
  
‘You’re so naive,’ said Ron, ‘you think just because you’re all honorable and trustworthy -’   
  
‘No, they can’t have done, because I put a jinx on that piece of parchment we all signed,’ said Hermione grimly. ‘Believe me, if anyone’s run off and told Umbridge, we’ll know exactly who they are and they will really regret it.’   
  
‘What’ll happen to them?’ said Ron eagerly.   
  
‘Well, put it this way,’ said Hermione, ‘it’ll make Eloise Midgeon’s acne look like a couple of cute freckles.’

Soon, the others arrived, and each of them hurried over to where they were to ask questions. First came Dean, Neville, Fred, George, Sienna, Olivia, and Ginny.

‘Did you see it?’   
  
‘D’you reckon she knows?’   
  
‘What are we going to do?’   
  
They were all looking at Harry and Avalon. She glanced around to make sure there were no   
teachers near them.   
  
‘We’re going to do it anyway, of course,’ she said quietly.   
  
‘Knew you’d say that,’ said George, beaming and thumping Avalon on the arm.   
  
‘The prefects as well?’ said Fred, looking quizzically at Ron and Hermione.   
  
‘Of course,’said Hermione coolly.   
  
‘Here come Ernie and Hannah Abbott,’ said Ron, looking over his shoulder. ‘And those Ravenclaw blokes and Smith ... and no one looks very spotty.’   
  
Hermione looked alarmed.   
  
‘Never mind spots, the idiots can’t come over here now, it’ll look really suspicious - sit down!’ she mouthed to Ernie and Hannah, gesturing frantically to them to rejoin the Hufflepuff table. ‘Later! We’ll - talk - to - you - later!’

‘I’ll tell Michael,’ said Ginny impatiently, swinging herself off her bench, ‘the fool, honestly ...’ She hurried off towards the Ravenclaw table.

_ +++++ _

Three days later and they still had not found a place or a day to meet up. Avalon thought about every possible place in the castle that could be used for their meetings, yet she could not come up with a good one, and that was only worsening her already bad mood.

She sat on the table in one of the far corners of the library. Weirdly, she found herself on the library a lot lately, probably because it was the only quiet place in Hogwarts.

‘Hey,’ said Harry, pulling her out of her thoughts.

‘Oh, hi, Harry, how long have you been standing there?’ Avalon said, looking up at her brother.

‘Not long, just got here, actually.’ He sat down in front of her. ‘Why are you here all alone?’

‘I needed some time to think and the Common Room was way too packed.’

‘So, you still like being alone?’

‘Hm?’ She tilted her head in confusion.

‘When we were kids you always liked to stay alone, well, not always, but most of the time.’

‘Being alone helps me think.’ She shrugged. ‘But I didn’t mind spending time with you.’

Harry gave her a small smile and both went quiet. Avalon looked at the window, it had begun raining and students ran into the castle, soaking from the rain.

‘Did you think of a place where we could-?’

‘Use for our meetings?’ Guessed Avalon. ‘Not yet.’

‘Did you know Mundungus was in the Hog’s Head that day?’ Asked Harry.

‘What? How do you know?’

‘Sirius told me.’

‘When did you speak to him?’

‘Yesterday night, in the fireplace.’

‘Oh.’

Avalon went quiet once again, a frown taking over her face.

‘Is something wrong?’ Asked Harry, noticing something had made her upset.

‘No,’ she muttered. Harry looked at her with a face that clearly said he didn’t believe her. ‘Yeah. I just wish he would talk to me too sometimes, but he always goes for you, Hermione, and Ron, sometimes it feels like I don’t even exist.’

‘You know that’s not true.’

‘Still, he always goes to you. Not me, not even Olivia,’ she countered.

‘Look, it’s not my fault you’re in a different house.’

‘It’s not my fault either,’ she said, defensively.

‘You could have told the Sorting Hat you didn’t want to go to Slytherin back in our first year, as I did.’ Harry shrugged, he didn’t understand why this troubled her so much.

‘Who said I didn’t want to go to Slytherin?’

‘All I’m saying-’

‘I know what you’re saying, Harry, I know you hate Slytherin, but I don’t, I never did, because unlike you, I don’t believe all of Slytherin is bad.’

‘That’s not what you said.’

‘No, but it’s what you thought, what you have always thought since our first year.’ She stood up. ‘Whatever Sirius told you, you should tell Olivia. She’ll be glad to know her father talks to you but not to her.’

And without hearing what else Harry had to say, Avalon grabbed her things and left the library.

_ +++++ _

‘Where have you been?’ Asked Nott when she walked into the Slytherin Common Room and dropped to the couch, next to where he was sitting.

‘Arguing with my brother,’ she said. She wore a troubled expression, her hands were shaking slightly from anger.

‘What? Why?’

‘Sirius talked to him.’

Nott furrowed his eyebrows at her. ‘And why is that a problem?’

‘Because it’s always him!’ She stood up, sighing in frustration. ‘He’s the only one everyone cares about! I’m always the second option!’

‘That’s not true,’ argued Nott.

‘It’s not? Sirius could have tried to talk to me instead of my brother for once.’ She shook her head, running her hand through her hair. ‘It doesn’t matter anyway, forget I said anything.’

Maybe she was blowing all of this out of proportion, but she didn’t care, all of it hurt her and she didn’t know a better way to deal with her feelings.

‘Avalon-’

‘What? Nott, I-’

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back onto the couch. ‘Listen to me, you’re not everyone’s second option, I know you don’t see that, but it’s true. You’re not my second option, nor Ginny’s, and well, nor Blaise’s.’

She managed to give him a small smile as she rested her head on his shoulder. She didn’t know if she was truly Blaise’s first option, as a part of her still thought he might like Olivia, but she decided not to mention that.

‘You’re so sweet sometimes, it’s annoying,’ she teased.

‘Shut up, you love it.’

Avalon sighed, grinning. ‘I do.’

She stayed there, with her head on his shoulder, for a while. The rain outside had turned into a thunderstorm, but it didn’t bother her, she had always liked thunderstorms.

‘Harry still thinks all of Slytherin is evil,’ she said, fiddling with her fingers.

‘Do you agree with him?’

‘Of course not, I’m not evil, neither are you.’

‘Yeah, that was a stupid question, sorry,’ he said with a grin.

‘He can be so dumb sometimes.’

He put his arm around her and, with her head on his shoulder, they stayed in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts.

‘What has been going on with you?’ Asked Nott, suddenly.

‘What do you mean?’ She asked, sitting up, away from his embrace.

‘You have been sort of on edge lately,’ he said as she furrowed her eyebrows, ‘you’ve been getting annoyed or angry very easily.’

‘I’ve just been really stressed out, I guess. It’s the O.W.L.’s year, so I’ve been studying a lot, and there’s the whole DADA situation, besides, I’ve been having some weird dreams,’ said Avalon. She didn’t want to talk about her feelings, about why she was frustrated, so she hoped what she said would put an end to that conversation.

‘What kind of dreams?’ Asked Nott, while Avalon seretly cursed him for doing so, instead of just saying  _ ‘Oh’  _ and leaving it alone.

‘It’s always the same one where I walk down a dark corridor towards a door that’s always locked.’

‘Do you have any idea of what’s behind the door?’

‘No, it has never opened,’ she shrugged, ‘it’s just a dream, I don’t know why it makes me so frustrated. I’m sorry I’m complaining.’

‘It’s okay to complain sometimes, and I understand you’re stressed, but you can’t let that make you angry all the time.’

‘I know, it’s just hard to calm myself down.’ She had been feeling all over the place lately, out of control, but she wasn’t going to mention that.

‘Is there any way I can help you?’

‘Just the fact that you care enough to ask what’s wrong already helps,’ she said, giving him a small smile and resting her head on his shoulders again. His presence really did help, but it didn’t really solve her problem.

They sat there for a long while, talking at times, then staying in silence, until both of them were too tired to keep their eyes open and fell asleep on the couch.

_ +++++ _

The next day, Avalon decided to find Ginny, it had been a while since they last talked. She found Ginny watching the Ravenclaw Quidditch team practicing. 

‘Hi,’ said Avalon, walking up to her.

‘Oh, hi, I thought you had forgotten I existed,’ complained Ginny.

‘Don’t be so dramatic.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Move over.’

‘You’re so bossy,’ she whined, but moved over anyway.

‘Why are you watching Ravenclaw’s practice?’ Asked Avalon, sitting next to her.

‘I have nothing better to do.’ She shrugged. ‘What are  _ you  _ doing here?’

‘I wanted to talk to you, Luna told me you were here.’

‘How did she know I was here?’

‘She was looking for her stuff again and saw you walk by her, some Ravenclaw boys took her things. I swear if I find them I’ll-’

‘Hex them? Punch them?’

‘Exactly.’

‘As much as I hate to say this, I don’t think hexing them will solve it.’

‘No, but it’ll teach them a good lesson.’

‘Well, if you find a way to hex them without getting caught, please let me know, there are a few people I’d like to hex.’

Avalon laughed. ‘Yeah, I thought you’d say that.’

Ginny gave her a smile and turned her eyes back to the pitch. Sienna was Ravenclaw’s Quidditch captain, Avalon had always admired her for it. She had loved Quidditch since her first year, but could not stay on a broom for the life of her, besides heights had always made her feel uncomfortable and unsafe.

‘So, Harry told me you two fought again,’ recalled Ginny.

‘Can we not talk about that?’

‘Have you talked to anyone about it?’

‘Yes, Nott and I talked about it last night.’

‘Oh, and how was it?’ Ginny said, smirking.

‘Normal.’ Avalon furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘I don’t know, I just assumed you still had a thing for him.’

‘I never had a thing for him, Ginny, besides I’m dating Blaise.’

‘And how is  _ that  _ going?’

‘Are we really going to talk about my love life?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why don’t we talk about yours?’

‘Yours first, I asked the question first.’

Avalon rolled her eyes, half annoyed, half amused. ‘Blaise is a great guy and our relationship is working pretty well, but…’ 

‘There’s always a  _ ‘but’,  _ isn’t there?’

‘I’m just not sure he’s really, completely into me.’

‘Well, are you  _ really, completely  _ into him?’

‘Let’s just watch the Quidditch practice, shall we? Sienna seems to be yelling at the beater,’ she spoke, quickly, trying to change the topic of the conversation.

‘Avalon!’ Growled Ginny, slapping Avalon on the arm.

‘Ouch! Fine, I’ll talk,’ she muttered in defeat, running her hand through her arm, ‘I like Blaise, I really do, I have a lot of fun with him.’

‘Is it just fun or do you really feel something for him?’

‘I think I do, or at least I want to.’

‘Maybe you two just need some time to figure your feelings out.’

‘I don’t know, I think part of him might actually like Olivia-’

‘How do you know that?’

‘He always talks about her and-’

‘Like Nott talks about you?’ Interrupted Ginny.

‘It’s different, besides Nott doesn’t talk that much to anyone but us, Luna, and Neville.’

‘It’s not that different.’

‘It is, anyway, I just don’t want to be a way for Blaise to forget Olivia, I’m afraid that if I talk to him about this he might just decide he doesn’t actually like me.’

‘And you don’t want to be rejected,’ guessed Ginny.

‘Yeah.’ She looked down at her feet, she hated talking about her feelings, it made her feel vulnerable, but the fact that the only person listening to her was Ginny made her feel better.

Ginny put her hand on Avalon’s shoulder, trying to comfort her friend. ‘Look, I know dealing with feelings is hard, believe me, it took me a while to get over your brother-’

‘Have you gotten over him?’ Avalon teased.

‘That’s not the point.’ She shook her head. ‘What I’m trying to say is that if you ever need to talk to someone, about anything, I’m here for you.’

‘Woah, I’ve never seen you being so sentimental.’

‘Oh, shut up, idiot. Come here,’ Ginny said and pulled Avalon into a hug.

_ +++++ _

Two days later, Avalon still hadn’t gathered enough courage to speak to Harry nor Blaise, she had more pressing matters to attend to anyway, like figuring out a location for their secret group meeting.

On her way to Transfiguration class, someone grabbed Avalon’s wrist and pulled her into a corridor. She had already gotten ahold of her wand when she realized it was just Harry.

‘Fuck, you scared me!’ Cursed Avalon, stuffing her wand back into her robes.

‘I’m sorry, I just needed to talk to you and I didn’t find you anywhere else.’

‘That’s because I was avoiding you.’

‘Look, I’m sorry for the things I said, and I’m sorry Sirius-’

‘You should never apologize for someone else’s actions,’ Avalon interrupted.

‘I’m trying to be nice, okay? Give me a break.’ Harry rolled his eyes impatiently.

Avalon sighed. ‘I know you didn’t mean most of the stuff you said. I get why you dislike Slytherin, we do have a bad reputation, but still, you shouldn’t judge a house based on a few bad students.’

‘I know, I was wrong, I’m sorry.’

She gave him a small smile. Her hand reached for his hair and she tried to pat it down to his head. ‘Your hair looks like a bird’s nest, have you ever heard of something called a hair comb?’

‘You sound like Aunt Petunia,’ he joked, with a smile on his face.

‘I should go now, Professor McGonagall will give me a detention if I’m late to her class again.’

‘Yeah, just one more thing, Dobby came into our Common Room last night and I asked him if he knew if there was a place we could use for our meetings.’

‘And?’

‘He told me of a place called The Room Of Requirement, Dumbledore mentioned the room at the Yule Ball last year, it turned into a bathroom when he needed it.’

‘How do we get in it?’

‘You need to ask for what you need and the room should appear. Dobby says it’s on the seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls.’

‘Alright, we’ll try to get in today after class. Meet me there, at eight o’clock,’ she decided, ‘Oh, and one more thing, promise me we will try to fight with each other less, it’s getting really annoying.’

‘I agree.’ He smiled at her and she smiled back, before hurrying away to her class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry it took me so long to update,, this chapter was mostly dialogue which is kinda tricky for me,,  
> anyway don't forget to comment and leave kudos,, i appreciate it a lot


	9. DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY

At half-past seven, Avalon met Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the place Dobby had described, a stretch of blank wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy’s foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.

‘So, what do we do now?’ Asked Avalon, completely clueless as to how they were going to find the so-called Room of Requirement.

‘Dobby said to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating on what we need,’ said Harry.

They did so, turning sharply at the window just beyond the blank stretch of wall, then at the man-sized vase on its other side. Ron had screwed up his eyes in concentration; Hermione was whispering something under her breath; Harry’s fists were clenched as he stared ahead of him; Avalon’s eyes were closed as she walked, she had serious doubts if any of this was going to work.

_ We need somewhere to learn how to defend ourselves...  _ she thought,  _ somewhere no one can find us… _

‘Harry! Avalon!’ said Hermione sharply, as they wheeled around after their third walk past.

A highly polished door had appeared in the wall. Ron was staring at it, looking slightly wary. Harry reached out, seized the brass handle, pulled open the door and led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.

The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs, there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors and a large, cracked Foe-Glass that Harry was sure had hung, the previous year, in the fake Moody’s office.

‘These will be good when we’re practicing Stunning,’ said Ron enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot.

‘And just look at these books!’ said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. ‘A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions ... The Dark Arts Outsmarted ... Self-Defensive Spellwork ... wow ...’ She looked around at Harry, her face glowing, and he saw that the presence of hundreds of books had finally convinced Hermione that what they were doing was right. ‘Harry, this is wonderful, there’s everything we need here!’

There was a gentle knock on the door. Avalon looked round. Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean had arrived.

‘Whoa,’ said Dean, staring around, impressed. ‘What is this place?’

Harry began to explain, but before he had finished more people had arrived and he had to start all over again. By the time eight o’clock arrived, every cushion was occupied. Harry moved across to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him and Avalon. Hermione carefully marked her page of the book she was reading and set it aside.

‘Well,’ said Harry, slightly nervously. Avalon put her hand on his shoulder to help him calm himself down. ‘This is the place we’ve found for practice sessions, and you’ve - er - obviously found it OK.’

‘It’s fantastic!’ said Sienna, and several people murmured their agreement.

‘It’s bizarre,’ said Fred, frowning around at it. ‘We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then.’

‘Hey, Harry, what’s this stuff?’ asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

‘Dark detectors,’ said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. ‘Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don’t want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled...’

‘Well, Harry and I have been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and - er -’ began Avalon, then she noticed a raised hand. ‘What, Hermione?’

‘I think we ought to elect the leaders,’ said Hermione.

‘Harry and Avalon, obviously,’ said Olivia, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.

‘Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly,’ said Hermione, unperturbed. ‘It makes it formal and it gives them authority. So - everyone who thinks Harry and Avalon ought to be our leaders?’

Everybody put up their hand, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very half-heartedly.

‘Er - right, thanks,’ said Harry, his face burning. ‘And - what, Hermione?’

‘I also think we ought to have a name,’ she said brightly, her hand still in the air. ‘It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don’t you think?’

‘Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?’ said Angelina hopefully. Avalon thought that it was quite a good idea.

‘Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?’ suggested Fred.

‘I was thinking,’ said Hermione, frowning at Fred, ‘more of a name that didn’t tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings.’

‘The Defence Association?’ said Cho. ‘The DA for short, so nobody knows what we’re talking about?’

‘Yeah, the DA’s good,’ said Ginny. ‘Only let’s make it stand for Dumbledore’s Army, because that’s the Ministry’s worst fear, isn’t it?’

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.

‘All in favor of the DA?’ said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. ‘That’s a majority - motion passed!’

She pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters:

DUMBLEDORE’S ARMY

‘Right,’ said Harry, when she had sat down again, ‘shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it’s pretty basic but I’ve found it really useful -’

‘Oh, please,’ said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. ‘I don’t think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?’

‘I’ve used it against him,’ said Harry quietly. ‘It saved my life in June.’ 

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.

‘But if you think it’s beneath you, you can leave,’ Harry said.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

‘Alright,’ Avalon broke in before they could continue their discussion, ‘I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice.’

It felt very odd to be issuing instructions, but not nearly as odd as seeing them followed. Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Predictably, Neville was left partnerless, so Nott decided to practice with him.

‘Shall we?’ Avalon asked Harry.

‘What?’

‘Only you and I are left without partners, so…’

‘Do you think we need to?’

‘Yes, the more we practice the better we get.’

‘I suppose you’re right,’ admitted Harry. ‘Right - on the count of three, then - one, two, three -’

The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air. Avalon was quick and caught Harry off-guard, his wand spun out of his hand and hit one of the cushions. 

Avalon grinned, ‘I guess I was right to tell you to practice huh?’

Harry rolled his eyes, retrieving his wand. ‘Don’t get too confident, I was distracted.’

She shook her head, laughing. Glancing around, she thought they had been right to suggest they practice the basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in Disarming their opponents at all, but merely causing them to jump backward a few paces or wince as their feeble spell whooshed over them.

_ ‘Expelliarmus!’  _ bellowed Harry, taking Avalon by surprise. Her wand flew out of her hand. ‘I told you not to get too confident.’

‘You got lucky. I think we ought to walk around and see how everyone else is doing,’ she said while picking her wand up from the floor.

Avalon moved off into the middle of the room. Something very odd was happening to Zacharias Smith. Every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony Goldstein, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Avalon did not have to look far to solve the mystery: Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back.

‘Sorry, Avalon,’ said George hastily, when Avalon caught his eye. ‘Couldn’t resist.’

Harry and Avalon walked around the other pairs, trying to correct those who were doing the spell wrong. Ginny was teamed with Michael Corner; she was doing very well, whereas Michael was either very bad or unwilling to jinx her. Ernie Macmillan was flourishing his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them; Luna Lovegood was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Sienna’s wand spinning out of her hand, at other times merely causing her hair to stand on end.

‘OK, stop!’ Harry shouted. ‘Stop! STOP!’

_ We need a whistle,  _ thought Avalon, and immediately spotted one lying on top of the nearest row of books. She caught it up and blew hard. Everyone lowered their wands.

‘That wasn’t bad,’ said Harry, still confused as to how Avalon had gotten ahold of a whistle, ‘but there’s definite room for improvement.’ Zacharias Smith glared at him. ‘Let’s try again.’

They moved off around the room again, stopping here and there to make suggestions. Slowly, the general performance improved. 

Avalon smirked when she saw that Harry went off to help Cho. She knew fairly well he fancied her.

‘Oh no,’ said Cho rather wildly as he approached. ‘ _ Expelliarmious! _ I mean,  _ Expellimellius! _ I - oh, sorry, Marietta!’

Her curly-haired friend’s sleeve had caught fire; Marietta extinguished it with her own wand and glared at Harry as though it was his fault.

‘You made me nervous, I was doing all right before then!’ Cho told Harry ruefully.

‘That was quite good,’ Harry lied and Avalon almost snorted, but when she raised her eyebrows he said, ‘Well, no, it was lousy, but I know you can do it properly, I was watching from over there.’

She laughed. Her friend Marietta looked at them rather sourly and turned away.

‘Don’t mind her,’ Cho muttered. ‘She doesn’t really want to be here but I made her come with me. Her parents have forbidden her to do anything that might upset Umbridge. You see - her mum works for the Ministry.’

‘What about your parents?’ asked Harry.

‘Well, they’ve forbidden me to get on the wrong side of Umbridge, too,’ said Cho, drawing herself up proudly. ‘But if they think I’m not going to fight You-Know-Who after what happened to Cedric-’

She broke off and Avalon decided to walk off to somewhere else; then Terry Boot’s wand went whizzing past Avalon’s ear and hit Alicia Spinnet hard on the nose.

‘Hey, Harry, Avalon,’ Hermione called from the other end of the room, ‘have you checked the time?’

Avalon looked at the clock on the wall and was shocked to see it was already ten past nine, which meant they needed to get back to their common rooms immediately or risk being caught and punished by Filch for being out of bounds. She blew her whistle; everybody stopped shouting ‘Expelliarmus’ and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.

‘Well, that was pretty good,’ said Avalon, ‘but we’ve overrun, we’d better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?’

‘Sooner!’ said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement. 

Angelina, however, said quickly, ‘The Quidditch season’s about to start, we need team practices too!’ 

‘Let’s say next Wednesday night, then,’ said Harry, ‘we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we’d better get going.’

He pulled out the Marauder’s Map again and checked it carefully for signs of teachers on the seventh floor. He let them all leave in threes and fours, watching their tiny dots anxiously to see that they returned safely to their dormitories: the Hufflepuffs to the basement corridor that also led to the kitchens; the Ravenclaws to a tower on the west side of the castle, and the Gryffindors along the corridor to the Fat Lady’s portrait, the only Slytherins in there were Avalon, Nott, and Blaise, so they stayed behind to leave together.

‘Is the way to the Slytherin dormitory clear?’ Asked Blaise.

‘Yeah,’ said Harry, checking the map.

‘See you tomorrow at breakfast?’ Avalon asked and Harry nodded, smiling.

Blaise, Nott, and Avalon hurried out of the room, running down the stairs, to the dungeons. The castle was basically empty at this time, so nothing delayed their arrival to the common room.

‘That was awesome,’ said Nott, enthusiastically.

‘Yeah, I disarmed Olivia a bunch of times,’ bragged Blaise.

Avalon raised her eyebrows at him.

‘Fine, she disarmed me a bunch of times, I only disarmed her twice,’ he confessed, sighing.

‘That’s what I thought,’ she gave him a small smile. ‘Well, I’m off to bed.’

‘Wait,’ said Blaise, pulling her in and kissing her. Nott muttered a weak ‘goodnight’ and walked upstairs to the boys’ dorm, but she was too distracted by the kiss to notice anything else.

‘Woah, what was that for?’ She asked after they pulled away from each other, his hands still on her waist.

‘I don’t know, just felt like doing it.’ He shrugged, smiling. ‘See you tomorrow?’

‘Yeah, goodnight.’

She gave him a quick kiss and ran up the stairs to her dormitory, with a huge smile on her face.

_ +++++ _

Over the following two weeks, Avalon felt like she was constantly challenging Umbridge, hiding a secret just under her nose, it made her feel daring and confident. During their recent meetings, Neville had successfully disarmed Hermione, Colin Creevey had mastered the Impediment Jinx after three meetings’ hard effort, Parvati Patil had produced such a good Reductor Curse that she had reduced the table carrying all the Sneakoscopes to dust.

They were finding it very hard to fix a regular night of the week for DA meetings, as they had to accommodate three separate teams’ Quidditch practices, which were often rearranged due to bad weather conditions, but Avalon had a feeling that it was probably better to keep the timing of their meetings unpredictable. If anyone was watching them, it would be hard to make out a pattern. Hermione soon devised a very clever method of communicating the time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case they needed to change it at short notice, because it would look suspicious if people from different Houses were seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often. She gave each of the members of the DA a fake Galleon (Ron became very excited when he first saw the basket and was convinced she was actually giving out gold).

‘You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?’ Hermione said, holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches. ‘On real Galleons that’s just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you’re carrying them in a pocket you’ll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry and Avalon set the date of the next meeting they’ll change the numbers on this coin, and because I’ve put a Protean Charm on them, they’ll all change to mimic the first coin.’

A blank silence greeted Hermione’s words. She looked around at all the faces upturned to her, rather disconcerted.

‘Well - I thought it was a good idea,’ she said uncertainly, ‘I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there’s nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But ... well, if you don’t want to use them -’

‘You can do a Protean Charm?’ said Terry Boot.

‘Yes,’ said Hermione.

‘But that’s ... that’s N.E.W.T. standard, that is,’ he said weakly.

‘Oh,’ said Hermione, trying to look modest. ‘Oh ... well ... yes, I suppose it is.’

‘How come you’re not in Ravenclaw?’ he demanded, staring at Hermione with something close to wonder. ‘With brains like yours?’

‘Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting,’ said Hermione brightly, ‘but it decided on Gryffindor in the end. So, does that mean we’re using the Galleons?’

There was a murmur of assent and everybody moved forwards to collect one from the basket. Avalon looked sideways at Hermione.

‘You know what these remind me of?’

‘No, what’s that?’

‘The Death Eaters’ scars. Voldemort touches one of them, and all their scars burn, and they know they’ve got to join him.’

‘Well ... yes,’ said Hermione quietly, ‘that is where I got the idea ... but you’ll notice I decided to engrave the date on bits of metal rather than on our members’ skin.’

‘Yeah ... I prefer your way,’ said Avalon, grinning, as she slipped the Galleon into her pocket.

As the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, drew nearer, their DA meetings were put on hold because Angelina insisted on almost daily practices. October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy draughts that bit at exposed hands and faces. The skies and the ceiling of the Great Hall turned a pale, pearly grey, the mountains around Hogwarts were snowcapped, and the temperature in the castle dropped so low that many students wore their thick protective dragonskin gloves in the corridors between lessons.

The morning of the match dawned bright and cold. Avalon walked down the stairs to the common room wearing a heavy coat and Slytherin’s green and silver scarf. She found Nott sitting by the fireplace, finishing up his Care of Magical Creatures essay, oblivious to all the other students making bets on what team would win the match.

She stood in front of him, arms crossed over her chest. ‘Why the hell are you not ready yet?’

‘Ready for what?’ He asked, looking up at her.

‘The match! Slytherin against Gryffindor? Please don’t tell me you’re not going.’

He frowned. ‘I really don’t feel like getting out of the castle today, it’s freezing outside.’

‘Are you really going to let the weather stop you from watching a Quidditch match?’

He shrugged, unpreoccupied. ‘I’m not really that into Quidditch.’

‘Our friends will be there,’ she said, tentatively, ‘Luna will probably wear a cool costume.’

‘Still not convinced.’

‘Please?’ She begged. ‘Come on, it’s going to be fun, and I don’t want to go alone.’

He shook his head. ‘You won’t be alone.’

‘Fine, if you’re not going, neither am I,’ she said and plopped down to the couch.

He furrowed his eyebrows at her, but stayed quiet, getting back to his essay. Avalon released a long dramatic sigh. ‘Ah, how I wish my best friend liked to hang out with me,’ she lamented and he simply rolled his eyes, trying to focus on his homework.

‘It’s truly sad,’ she continued.

He stood up impatiently. ‘Get up.’

‘What for?’

‘We’re going to the damn match.’

‘Yay!’ She jumped off the couch, beaming, ‘you’re the best!’

‘I hate you,’ he said, grabbing his coat.

‘Nah, you don’t.’

When they reached the stadium they were already freezing, Avalon noted the sky was a uniform pearly white, which meant that visibility would be good without the drawback of direct sunlight in the eyes.

‘You managed to get Nott to come!’ Exclaimed Ginny when Avalon and Nott found her on the bleachers.

Ginny was accompanied by Neville who was wearing a Gryffindor hat and Luna, who wore a hat shaped like a life-size lion’s head, which was perched precariously on her head.

‘I’m supporting Gryffindor,’ said Luna, pointing unnecessarily at her hat. ‘Look what it does ...’

She reached up and tapped the hat with her wand. It opened its mouth wide and gave an extremely realistic roar that made everyone around them jump.

‘It’s good, isn’t it?’ said Luna happily. ‘I wanted to have it chewing up a serpent to represent Slytherin, no offense Avalon.’

‘None taken,’ she assured, ‘it’s a really nice hat, Luna.’

‘Thanks!’ Luna beamed.

‘Guys, it’s going to start!’ Warned Neville.

‘Captains, shake hands,’ ordered the referee Madam Hooch, as Angelina and Montague reached each other. Avalon could tell that Montague was trying to crush Angelina’s fingers, though she did not wince. ‘Mount your brooms ...’ 

Madam Hooch placed her whistle in her mouth and blew. The balls were released and the fourteen players shot upwards. Ron streaked off towards the goal hoops. Harry zoomed higher, dodging a Bludger, and set off on a wide lap of the pitch, gazing around for a glint of gold; on the other side of the stadium, Draco Malfoy was doing exactly the same.

‘And it’s Johnson - Johnson with the Quaffle, what a player that girl is, I’ve been saying it for years but she still won’t go out with me -’

‘JORDAN!’ yelled Professor McGonagall.

‘- just a fun fact, Professor, adds a bit of interest - and she’s ducked Warrington, she’s passed Montague, she’s - ouch - been hit from behind by a Bludger from Crabbe ... Montague catches the Quaffle, Montague heading back up the pitch and - nice Bludger there from George Weasley, that’s a Bludger to the head for Montague, he drops the Quaffle, caught by Katie Bell, Katie Bell of Gryffindor reverse-passes to Alicia Spinnet and Spinnet’s away -’

Lee Jordan’s commentary rang through the stadium, Avalon could see Professor McGonagall looking at him disapprovingly.

‘- dodges Warrington, avoids a Bludger - close call, Alicia - and the crowd are loving this, just listen to them, what’s that they’re singing?’

And as Lee paused to listen, the song rose loud and clear from the sea of green and silver in the Slytherin section of the stands:

_ ‘Weasley cannot save a thing, _ _   
_ _ He cannot block a single ring, _ _   
_ _ That’s why Slytherins all sing: _ _   
_ _ Weasley is our King. _ _   
_ _ ‘Weasley was born in a bin _ _   
_ _ He always lets the Quaffle in _ _   
_ _ Weasley will make sure we win _ _   
_ __ Weasley is our King.’

‘- and Alicia passes back to Angelina!’ Lee shouted, trying to drown out the words of the song. ‘Come on now, Angelina - looks like she’s got just the Keeper to beat! - SHE SHOOTS - SHE - aaaah ...’

Bletchley, the Slytherin Keeper, had saved the goal; he threw the Quaffle to Warrington who sped off with it, zig-zagging in between Alicia and Katie; the singing from below grew louder and louder as he drew nearer and nearer Ron.

‘- and it’s Warrington with the Quaffle, Warrington heading for goal, he’s out of Bludger range with just the Keeper ahead-’

‘- so it’s the first test for new Gryffindor Keeper Weasley, brother of Beaters Fred and George, and a promising new talent on the team - come on, Ron!’

But the scream of delight came from the Slytherins’ end: Ron had dived wildly, his arms wide, and the Quaffle had soared between them straight through Ron’s central hoop. Avalon did not celebrate, she thought it was ridiculous that the Slytherin crowd was singing a song just to get Ron to mess up. She took her green scarf off and stuffed it inside her coat.

‘Not cheering for Slytherin anymore?’ Asked Nott.

She simply shook her head, angry.

‘Slytherin score!’ came Lee’s voice amid the cheering and booing from the crowds below, ‘so that’s ten-nil to Slytherin - bad luck, Ron.’

The Slytherins sang even louder: 

_ ‘WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN _ _   
_ _ HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN ...’ _

‘- and Gryffindor back in possession and it’s Katie Bell tanking up the pitch -‘ cried Lee valiantly, though the singing was now so deafening that he could hardly make himself heard above it.

_ ‘WEASLEY WILL MAKE SURE WE WIN _ _   
_ _ WEASLEY IS OUR KING ...’ _

‘- and it’s Warrington again,’ bellowed Lee, ‘who passes to Pucey, Pucey’s off past Spinnet, come on now, Angelina, you can take him - turns out you can’t - but nice Bludger from Fred Weasley, I mean, George Weasley, oh, who cares, one of them, anyway, and Warrington drops the Quaffle and Katie Bell - er - drops it, too - so that’s Montague with the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Montague takes the Quaffle and he’s off up the pitch, come on now, Gryffindor, block him!’

_ ‘WEASLEY CANNOT SAVE A THING ...’ _

‘- and Pucey’s dodged Alicia again and he’s heading straight for goal, stop it, Ron!’

There was a terrible groan from the Gryffindor end, coupled with fresh screams and applause from the Slytherins. Avalon saw Pansy Parkinson right at the front of the stands, her back to the pitch as she conducted the Slytherin supporters who were roaring:

‘ _ THAT’S WHY SLYTHERINS ALL SING _ _   
_ _ WEASLEY IS OUR KING.’ _

Avalon decided she would definitely hex Pansy once she got to the girls’ dormitory after the match.

‘- and Katie Bell of Gryffindor dodges Pucey, ducks Montague, nice swerve, Katie, and she throws to Johnson, Angelina Johnson takes the Quaffle, she’s past Warrington, she’s heading for goal, come on now, Angelina - GRYFFINDOR SCORE! It’s forty-ten, forty-ten to Slytherin and Pucey has the Quaffle ...’

Gryffindor began to cheer, Luna’s hat was roaring, and Avalon was surprised to see herself cheering too. 

‘- Pucey throws to Warrington, Warrington to Montague, Montague back to Pucey - Johnson intervenes, Johnson takes the Quaffle, Johnson to Bell, this looks good - I mean bad - Bell’s hit by a Bludger from Goyle of Slytherin and it’s Pucey in possession again ...’ 

_ ‘WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN _ _   
_ _ HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN _ _   
_ __ WEASLEY WILL MAKE SURE WE WIN ...’

Then, Avalon saw Harry dive - she guessed he probably had spotted the snitch - in a matter of seconds, Malfoy was streaking out of the sky on Harry’s left, a green and silver blur lying flat on his broom…

The Snitch skirted the foot of one of the goal hoops and scooted off towards the other side of the stands; its change of direction suited Malfoy, who was nearer; Harry pulled his Firebolt around, he and Malfoy were now neck and neck…

Feet from the ground, Harry lifted his right hand from his broom, stretching towards the Snitch ... to his right, Malfoy’s arm extended too, was reaching, groping…

It was over in two breathless, desperate, windswept seconds - Harry’s fingers closed around the tiny, struggling ball, he pulled his broom upwards, holding the struggling ball in his hand and the Gryffindor spectators screamed their approval…

They were saved, it did not matter that Ron had let in those goals, nobody would remember as long as Gryffindor had won -

WHAM.

A Bludger hit Harry squarely in the small of the back and he flew forwards off his broom. Luckily he was only five or six feet above the ground, having dived so low to catch the Snitch, but he was winded all the same as he landed flat on his back on the frozen pitch. 

‘Let’s get down there,’ Avalon said and ran down the bleachers, to the pitch, where Harry was, followed by Luna, Ginny, Neville, and Nott.

Avalon saw the team landing one by one, yelling and punching the air in triumph; all except Ron, who had dismounted from his broom over by the goalposts and seemed to be making his way slowly back to the changing rooms alone.

‘Harry, are you okay?’ Asked Avalon, finally reaching him.

‘Yeah, I think so,’ he said, rubbing his back.

‘We wanted to write another couple of verses!’ Malfoy called, as Katie and Alicia hugged Harry. ‘But we couldn’t find rhymes for fat and ugly - we wanted to sing about his mother, see -’

‘Talk about sour grapes,’ said Angelina, casting Malfoy a disgusted look.

‘- we couldn’t fit in  _ useless loser _ either - for his father, you know-’

Fred and George had realized what Malfoy was talking about. Halfway through shaking Harry’s hand, they stiffened, looking round at Malfoy.

‘Leave it!’ said Angelina at once, taking Fred by the arm. ‘Leave it, Fred, let him yell, he’s just sore he lost, the jumped-up little -’

‘- but you like the Weasleys, don’t you, Potter?’ said Malfoy, sneering. ‘Spend holidays there and everything, don’t you? Can’t see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you’ve been dragged up by Muggles, even the Weasleys’ hovel smells OK -’

Harry grabbed hold of George. Meanwhile, it was taking the combined efforts of Angelina, Alicia, Katie, and Sienna (Avalon had no idea how she got there,) to stop Fred leaping on Malfoy, who was laughing openly. Avalon looked around for Madam Hooch, but she was still berating Crabbe for his illegal Bludger attack.

‘Or perhaps,’ said Malfoy, leering as he backed away, ‘you can remember what your mother’s house stank like, Potter, and Weasley’s pigsty reminds you of it -’

Harry released George, a second later both of them were sprinting towards Malfoy. With no time to draw out his wand, he merely drew back the fist clutching the Snitch and sank it as hard as he could into Malfoy’s stomach -

‘Harry! HARRY! GEORGE! NO!’ Avalon yelled.

She could hear girls’ voices screaming, Malfoy yelling, George swearing, a whistle blowing and the bellowing of the crowd around them, but Harry did not seem care. Not until somebody in the vicinity yelled ‘Impedimenta!’ and he was knocked over backwards by the force of the spell, did he abandon the attempt to punch every inch of Malfoy he could reach.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ screamed Madam Hooch, as Harry leapt to his feet. It seemed to have been her who had hit him with the Impediment Jinx; she was holding her whistle in one hand and a wand in the other; her broom lay abandoned several feet away. Malfoy was curled up on the ground, whimpering and moaning, his nose bloody; George was sporting a swollen lip; Fred was still being forcibly restrained by the three Chasers and Sienna, and Crabbe was cackling in the background. ‘I’ve never seen behavior like it - back up to the castle, both of you, and straight to your Head of House’s office! Go! Now!’

Avalon had not realized she was holding her breath until she let go of it. She didn’t know what would happen to them now, all she knew is that it couldn’t be anything good.


	10. THE EYE OF THE SNAKE

The sun was almost setting when Fred and George found Sienna sitting on a rock near the edge of the lake. Students hurried inside the castle to protect themselves from the cold, but Sienna didn’t seem to mind the wind hitting her face.

‘What are you doing here?’ Asked Fred, walking up to her.

‘Don’t you know you have to say ‘hello’ to someone first? Didn’t your mum teach you manners?’ Said Sienna, grinning at them.

‘She did, but we ignored that.’ George shrugged, sitting on a rock near Sienna’s.

‘My question still remains to be answered,’ demanded Fred.

‘Well, if you must know, I’m flirting with the Giant Squid,’ she joked.

‘And how is that going for you?’

‘Terribly, I think she’s ignoring me.’

Fred chuckled. ‘Sounds fun, but really, why are you here?’

‘I wanted to throw a letter in the lake,’ said Sienna. Her hand was clenched around a crumpled piece of parchment.

‘Who is it from?’ Asked George, trying to get the letter from her, but she stored it away on her coat.

‘My father,’ she said glumly, ‘he told me not to come home for Christmas.’

‘Were you going to go home?’ Questioned Fred, almost incredulously.

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. ‘As if! No, my plan was to stay here or to rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron, I need to buy some new quills anyway.’

‘How do you even have money if your dad disowned you?’ George furrowed his eyebrows, confused.

‘I got some money from his Gringotts vault the day I ran away, before he could tell the goblins not to allow me in.’

‘You stole-’

‘Hold on,’ interrupted Fred, ‘were you planning on spending Christmas alone?’

‘Yeah, I think so. Olivia is going to be at her father’s house, although she told everyone she was going to her uncle’s, so it will be just me and some great Christmas food.’

‘That’s not going to happen.’

‘Fred, I-’

‘No, I’m sure mum wouldn’t mind if you spent Christmas over at our house, right George?’

‘Look, there’s no need-’ Sienna began.

‘No, Fred is right, mum wouldn’t mind.’

‘Guys, if you haven’t noticed yet, I don’t think your parents really like my family, it’s not going to work,’ she said, shaking her head. She didn’t want to spend Christmas alone, but she knew she wasn’t going to be welcomed at the Weasleys’ house.

‘You’re not your family, Sienna,’ assured Fred.

‘Yeah, you’re nicer than all of them combined,’ commented George.

‘Maybe I’ll go, but send your parents a letter first, if I go there out of nowhere I think your mum will kick me out of your house,’ she gave in, grinning.

‘Another war is won!’ Fred shouted, jumping out of the rock, but then he slipped on the frozen grass and fell on his face.

Both Sienna and George started to laugh. Sienna tried to help him up, but ended up falling next to him, while George stayed on his rock, laughing so hard he couldn’t even get up to help them.

_ +++++ _

December was as cold as it could get, so most of the students hurried back to their common rooms after class to warm themselves up. On the other hand, Avalon and Blaise had found another way to get warm. She was resting her back against the wall as he leaned over her, his lips on hers.

The corridor they had found was empty, but there was still a high possibility Filch could walk by and catch them. 

‘Blaise…’ she muttered between their kiss, ‘wait…’

‘What? Is everything okay?’ He asked, furrowing his eyebrows, concern showing on his face.

‘Yeah, but we’re almost late for the DA meeting.’

‘I’m sure no one will mind if we’re a few minutes late,’ he smirked, as he began kissing her neck softly.

‘I’m sure they  _ will  _ mind,’ she said, gently pushing him away, ‘come on, it’s our last meeting before Christmas break, it’s going to be fun.’

He sighed, fixing his robes. ‘Well, let’s go then.’

Most of the DA members were already in the room when Blaise and Avalon arrived. The room was full of Christmas decorations and Avalon could tell Dobby was the one who put them up, because no one else would have the same  _ peculiar  _ taste as the elf did.

‘What did we miss?’ Asked Avalon, approaching Harry.

‘Nothing important, just Angelina scolding me for getting kicked out of the Quidditch team,’ said Harry, bitterly.

‘I’m sorry about that.’ She placed her hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort him. ‘Well, I think we should start today’s meeting, everyone’s here.’

‘OK,’ he said, calling them all to order. ‘I thought this evening we should just go over the things we’ve done so far, because it’s the last meeting before the holidays and there’s no point starting anything new right before a three-week break -’

‘We’re not doing anything new?’ said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled whisper loud enough to carry through the room. ‘If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have come.’

‘We’re all really sorry Harry didn’t tell you, then,’ said Fred loudly and several people sniggered. 

‘We can practice in pairs,’ said Avalon. ‘We’ll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again.’

They all divided up obediently; Harry partnered Avalon as usual. The room was soon full of intermittent cries of ‘ _ Impedimenta! _ ’ People froze for a minute or so, during which their partner would stare aimlessly around the room watching other pairs at work, then would unfreeze and take their turn at the jinx.

When Harry and Avalon decided to walk around the room, she noticed Neville had improved beyond all recognition, jinxing Nott nearly as many times as Nott jinxed him. 

After ten minutes on the Impediment Jinx, they laid out cushions all over the floor and started practicing Stunning again. Space was really too confined to allow them all to work this spell at once; half the group observed the others for a while, then swapped over. At the end of an hour, Harry called a halt.

‘You’re getting really good,’ he said, beaming around at them. ‘When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff - maybe even Patronuses.’

There was a murmur of excitement. The room began to clear in the usual twos and threes; most people wished Harry and Avalon a ‘Happy Christmas’ as they went.

‘Hi, Avalon, can I steal you for a minute?’ Asked Nott, hurrying over to her before she could leave the room.

‘Sure, what for?’ She said, as they walked out of the room and began to make their way back to the Slytherin dormitory.

‘I just wanted to let you know that I won’t spend Christmas with you-’

‘Wait, what? Where are you going?’ She stopped walking and looked over at him.

‘My father told me to go home.’ He looked down, he didn’t know what her reaction was going to be and he wasn’t sure if he would like it.

‘You can’t go! What if one of your father’s death eater  _ friends  _ show up?’ She protested, looking at him in an almost pleading way.

‘There’s no arguing with him, Avalon, I have to go.’ He looked down, avoiding her gaze.

‘You can stay here, I would stay with you and-’

‘It’s just for a few days, Lily. I’m going to be fine.’ 

_ Lily.  _ Her middle name. No one called her that, but him. It made her feel calmer and a small smile crept its way to her lips. ‘You haven’t called me that in a while.’

‘Does it bother you?’

‘No, not at all.’

‘Will you let me go then?’

‘Is there any way I can stop you?’

‘No, I don’t think there is.’ He gave her a small, apologetic smile. Something about her amazed him, how she could rage like a thunderstorm in a second, just to calm down in the next. With a smile still on his face, he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. 

She stood still, looking up at him, she felt her heart beating hard and fast inside her chest and she couldn’t understand why. 

‘I… I think we need to go if we don’t want to get caught,’ he said, rather abruptly, as they both looked away as if they were coming out of some kind of trance.

‘Yeah, I agree.’ She nodded quickly.

As they walked back to the dormitory, Avalon felt like her heart was about to leap out of her rib cage, she had felt that before when she was scared, but this time it was different, in the best way possible.

_ +++++ _

Avalon went to sleep feeling confused about her own feelings, she wanted to stop thinking about it, but every time she tried to think about something else Nott came back to her mind.

She dreamed about him that night, they were laying on the grass near the lake, it was a summer evening, and they simply talked, no one bothered them and they had nothing to worry about.

Then, the dream changed.

She was gliding between shining metal bars, across dark, cold stone ... she was flat against the floor, sliding along on her belly ... it was dark, yet she could see objects around her shimmering in strange, vibrant colors... she was turning his head … at first glance the corridor was empty ... but no ... a man was sitting on the floor ahead, his chin drooping on to his chest, his outline gleaming in the dark … he was alive but drowsy…

Avalon longed to bite the man ... but she must master the impulse ... she had more important work to do …

But the man was stirring ... a silver Cloak fell from his legs as he jumped to his feet; and Avalon saw his vibrant, blurred outline towering above her, saw a wand withdrawn from a belt ... he had no choice ... she reared high from the floor and struck once, twice, three times, plunging her fangs deeply into the man’s flesh, feeling his ribs splinter beneath his jaws, feeling the warm gush of blood …

The man was yelling in pain ... then he fell silent ... he slumped backwards against the wall ... blood was splattering on to the floor …

Avalon woke up in a startle, panting and sweating. Her head hurt so much her vision was blurred and her bed covers were all twisted around her. 

She pushed herself out of her bed, but fell to her knees. She felt her head spinning and she was trying really hard not vomit, but she felt like her stomach was twisting and turning inside her.

She needed to get to Dumbledore, she needed to warn him. She looked around the room, thankfully, all of her dorm mates were still asleep, Avalon did not want them to see her like this, they weren’t friends, she didn’t want them to know what happened.

She took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet. She stumbled across the room and down the stairs, using the walls for support, all the way to the boys’ dorm. She walked to Nott’s bed and started shaking his shoulder gently.

‘Avalon? What are you doing here?’ He muttered, rubbing his eyes. 

‘I need your help,’ she whispered. Her hands were still shaking and she felt cold sweat dripping down her pale face.

‘What’s wrong?’ Asked Nott, instantly sitting up, looking at her with concern all over his face.

‘I need to see Dumbledore, come on, I’ll tell you on the way, okay?’ She said quickly, looking around to check if anyone else had woken up.

The panic in her voice made him not ask any further questions. He got out of his bed and walked out of the room with her, the look of concern never leaving his face.

She held onto his arm for support the whole way to Dumbledore’s office. Her body was still shaking and her head still hurt, but the nausea was slowly going away. 

‘I had a dream…’ She began to explain, ‘well, it was more like a vision. I saw Arthur being attacked…’ She refrained from telling him she was the one who had attacked him.

‘How do you know it was real?’ 

‘I just do. I was dreaming about… doesn’t matter, and then it changed, it wasn’t a dream.’

H nodded, although he was confused he decided to take her word for it. When they got near his office Avalon was not surprised to see her brother standing there, accompanied by Ron and Professor McGonagall.

‘Did you see it?’ Asked Harry, as soon as he saw her. 

She nodded quickly and turned to Nott. ‘Thanks for helping me, you should go now.’ She gave him a small, reassuring, smile.

‘But-’

‘You should go now, Mr. Nott,’ Professor McGonagall intervened, her order for him to go back to his dorm was clear.

Nott sighed and walked away, after making sure Avalon was going to be fine.

McGonagall turned to the stone gargoyle guarding Dumbledore’s office. ‘Fizzing Whizzbee,’ she said.

The gargoyle sprang to life and leaped aside; the wall behind it split in two to reveal a stone staircase that was moving continually upwards like a spiral escalator. The four of them stepped on to the moving stairs; the wall closed behind them with a thud and they were moving upwards in tight circles until they reached the highly polished oak door with the brass knocker shaped like a griffin.

Though it was now well past midnight there were voices coming from inside the room, a positive babble of them. It sounded as though Dumbledore was entertaining at least a dozen people.

Professor McGonagall rapped three times with the griffin knocker and the voices ceased abruptly as though someone had switched them all off. The door opened of its own accord and Professor McGonagall led Harry, Avalon, and Ron inside.

The room was in half-darkness; the strange silver instruments standing on tables were silent and still rather than whirring and emitting puffs of smoke as they usually did; the portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses covering the walls were all snoozing in their frames. Behind the door, a magnificent red and gold bird the size of a swan dozed on its perch with its head under its wing.

‘Oh, it’s you, Professor McGonagall ... and ...  _ ah.’ _

Dumbledore was sitting in a high-backed chair behind his desk; he leaned forward into the pool of candlelight illuminating the papers laid out before him. He was wearing a magnificently embroidered purple and gold dressing gown over a snowy white nightshirt, but seemed wide-awake, his penetrating light blue eyes fixed intently upon Professor McGonagall.

‘Professor Dumbledore, the Potters have had a ... well, a nightmare,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘They say...’

‘It wasn’t a nightmare,’ said Harry quickly.

Professor McGonagall looked round at Harry, frowning slightly.

‘Very well, then, Potter, you tell the Headmaster about it.’

‘I ... well, I was asleep ...’ said Harry and, the Headmaster was not looking at him, but examining his own interlocked fingers. ‘But it wasn’t an ordinary dream ... it was real ... I saw it happen ...’ He took a deep breath, ‘Ron’s dad - Mr. Weasley - has been attacked by a giant snake.’

The words seemed to reverberate in the air after he had said them, sounding slightly ridiculous, even comic. There was a pause in which Dumbledore leaned back and stared meditatively at the ceiling. Ron looked from Harry to Dumbledore, white-faced and shocked.

‘How did you see this?’ Dumbledore asked quietly, still not looking at Harry.

‘Well ... I don’t know,’ said Harry, rather angrily - what did it matter? ‘Inside my head, I suppose -’

‘You misunderstand me,’ said Dumbledore, still in the same calm tone. ‘I mean ... can you remember - er - where you were positioned as you watched this attack happen? Were you perhaps standing beside the victim, or else looking down on the scene from above?’

Harry hesitated, so Avalon broke in. ‘We were the snake,’ she said, assuming they had seen the same thing, and Harry did not correct her. ‘We saw it all from the snake’s point of view.’

Nobody else spoke for a moment, then Dumbledore, now looking at Ron who was still whey-faced, asked in a new and sharper voice, ‘Is Arthur seriously injured?’

‘ _ Yes, _ ’ said Harry emphatically.

Dumbledore stood up, so quickly it made Harry jump, and addressed one of the old portraits hanging very near the ceiling. ‘Everard?’ he said sharply. ‘And you too, Dilys!’

A sallow-faced wizard with a short black fringe and an elderly witch with long silver ringlets in the frame beside him, both of whom seemed to have been in the deepest of sleeps, opened their eyes immediately.

‘You were listening?’ said Dumbledore.

The wizard nodded; the witch said, ‘Naturally.’

‘The man has red hair and glasses,’ said Dumbledore. ‘Everard, you will need to raise the alarm, make sure he is found by the right people -’

Both nodded and moved sideways out of their frames, but instead of emerging in neighboring pictures (as usually happened at Hogwarts) neither reappeared. One frame now contained nothing but a backdrop of a dark curtain, the other a handsome leather armchair. Avalon noticed that many of the other headmasters and mistresses on the walls, though snoring and drooling most convincingly, kept sneaking peeks at him from under their eyelids, and she suddenly understood who had been talking when they had knocked.

‘Everard and Dilys were two of Hogwarts’s most celebrated Heads,’ Dumbledore said, now sweeping around Harry, Avalon, Ron and Professor McGonagall to approach the magnificent sleeping bird on his perch beside the door. ‘Their renown is such that both have portraits hanging in other important wizarding institutions. As they are free to move between their own portraits, they can tell us what may be happening elsewhere...’

‘But Mr. Weasley could be anywhere!’ Protested Avalon.

‘Please sit down, all four of you,’ said Dumbledore, as though Avalon had not spoken, ‘Everard and Dilys may not be back for several minutes. Professor McGonagall, if you could draw up extra chairs.’

Professor McGonagall pulled her wand from the pocket of her dressing gown and waved it; three chairs appeared out of thin air, straight-backed and wooden. Avalon sat down, watching Dumbledore over her shoulder. Dumbledore was now stroking Fawkes’s plumed golden head with one finger. The phoenix awoke immediately. He stretched his beautiful head high and observed Dumbledore through bright, dark eyes.

‘We will need,’ Dumbledore said very quietly to the bird, ‘a warning.’

There was a flash of fire and the phoenix had gone.

Dumbledore now swooped down upon one of the fragile silver instruments whose function Avalon had never known, carried it over to his desk, sat down facing them again and tapped it gently with the tip of his wand.

The instrument tinkled into life at once with rhythmic clinking noises. Tiny puffs of pale green smoke issued from the minuscule silver tube at the top. Dumbledore watched the smoke closely, his brow furrowed. After a few seconds, the tiny puffs became a steady stream of smoke that thickened and coiled in the air... a serpent’s head grew out of the end of it, opening its mouth wide. Avalon wondered whether the instrument was confirming their story: she looked eagerly at Dumbledore for a sign that she was right, but Dumbledore did not look up.

‘Naturally, naturally,’ murmured Dumbledore apparently to himself, still observing the stream of smoke without the slightest sign of surprise. ‘But in essence divided?’

The smoke serpent split itself instantly into two snakes, both coiling and undulating in the dark air. With a look of grim satisfaction, Dumbledore gave the instrument another gentle tap with his wand: the clinking noise slowed and died and the smoke serpents grew faint, became a formless haze and vanished.

Dumbledore replaced the instrument on its spindly little table. Avalon saw many of the old headmasters in the portraits follow him with their eyes, then, realizing that Avalon was watching them, hastily pretend to be sleeping again. Avalon wanted to ask what the strange silver instrument was for, but before she could do so, there was a shout from the top of the wall to their right; the wizard called Everard had reappeared in his portrait, panting slightly.

‘Dumbledore!’

‘What news?’ said Dumbledore at once.

‘I yelled until someone came running,’ said the wizard, who was mopping his brow on the curtain behind him, ‘said I’d heard something moving downstairs - they weren’t sure whether to believe me but went down to check - you know there are no portraits down there to watch from. Anyway, they carried him up a few minutes later. He doesn’t look good, he’s covered in blood, I ran along to Elfrida Cragg’s portrait to get a good view as they left -’

‘Good,’ said Dumbledore as Ron made a convulsive movement. ‘I take it Dilys will have seen him arrive, then -’

And moments later, the silver-ringleted witch had reappeared in her picture, too; she sank, coughing, into her armchair and said, ‘Yes, they’ve taken him to St Mungo’s, Dumbledore ... they carried him past my portrait ... he looks bad ...’

‘Thank you,’ said Dumbledore. He looked round at Professor McGonagall. ‘Minerva, I need you to go and wake the other Weasley children.’

‘Of course ...’ Professor McGonagall got up and moved swiftly to the door. 

‘And Dumbledore - what about Molly?’ said Professor McGonagall, pausing at the door.

‘That will be a job for Fawkes when he has finished keeping a lookout for anybody approaching,’ said Dumbledore. ‘But she may already know... that excellent clock of hers...’

Dumbledore was now rummaging in a cupboard behind Harry, Avalon, and Ron. He emerged from it carrying a blackened old kettle, which he placed carefully on his desk. He raised his wand and murmured, ‘Portus!’ For a moment the kettle trembled, glowing with an odd blue light; then it quivered to rest, as solidly black as ever.

Dumbledore marched over to another portrait, this time of a clever-looking wizard with a pointed beard, who had been painted wearing the Slytherin colors of green and silver and was apparently sleeping so deeply that he could not hear Dumbledore’s voice when he attempted to rouse him.

‘Phineas.  _ Phineas. _ ’

The subjects of the portraits lining the room were no longer pretending to be asleep; they were shifting around in their frames, the better to watch what was happening. When the clever-looking wizard continued to feign sleep, some of them shouted his name, too.

‘Phineas!  _ Phineas! _ PHINEAS!’

He could not pretend any longer; he gave a theatrical jerk and opened his eyes wide.

‘Did someone call?’

‘I need you to visit your other portrait again, Phineas,’ said Dumbledore. ‘I’ve got another message.’

‘Visit my other portrait?’ said Phineas in a reedy voice, giving a long, fake yawn (his eyes traveling around the room and focusing on Harry and Avalon). ‘Oh, no, Dumbledore, I am too tired tonight.’

The portraits on the surrounding walls broke into a storm of protest.

‘Insubordination, sir!’ roared a corpulent, red-nosed wizard, brandishing his fists. ‘Dereliction of duty!’

‘We are honor-bound to give service to the present Headmaster of Hogwarts!’ cried a frail-looking old wizard whom Avalon recognized as Dumbledore’s predecessor, Armando Dippet. ‘Shame on you, Phineas!’

‘Shall I persuade him, Dumbledore?’ called a gimlet-eyed witch, raising an unusually thick wand that looked not unlike a birch rod.

‘Oh, very well,’ said the wizard called Phineas, eyeing the wand with mild apprehension, ‘though he may well have destroyed my picture by now, he’s done away with most of the family-’

‘Sirius knows not to destroy your portrait,’ said Dumbledore, and Avalon realized immediately where she had heard Phineas’s voice before: issuing from the apparently empty frame in Harry’s bedroom in Grimmauld Place. ‘You are to give him the message that Arthur Weasley has been gravely injured and that his wife, children, and Harry and Avalon Potter will be arriving at his house shortly. Do you understand?’

‘Arthur Weasley, injured, wife and children and the Potters coming to stay,’ recited Phineas in a bored voice. ‘Yes, yes... very well...’

He sloped away into the frame of the portrait and disappeared from view at the very moment the study door opened again. Fred, George and Ginny were ushered inside by Professor McGonagall, all three of them looking disheveled and shocked, still in their night things.

‘Harry, Avalon - what’s going on?’ asked Ginny, who looked frightened. ‘Professor McGonagall says you saw Dad get hurt -’

‘Your father has been injured in the course of his work for the Order of the Phoenix,’ said Dumbledore, before Harry and Avalon could speak. ‘He has been taken to St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I am sending you back to Sirius’s house, which is much more convenient for the hospital than The Burrow. You will meet your mother there.’

‘How’re we going?’ asked Fred, looking shaken. ‘Floo powder?’

‘No,’ said Dumbledore, ‘Floo powder is not safe at the moment, the Network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey.’ He indicated the old kettle lying innocently on his desk. ‘We are just waiting for Phineas Nigellus to report back... I want to be sure that the coast is clear before sending you -’

There was a flash of flame in the very middle of the office, leaving behind a single golden feather that floated gently to the floor.

‘It is Fawkes’s warning,’ said Dumbledore, catching the feather as it fell. ‘Professor Umbridge must know you’re out of your beds ... Minerva, go and head her off - tell her any story -’

Professor McGonagall was gone in a swish of tartan.

‘He says he’ll be delighted,’ said a bored voice behind Dumbledore; the wizard called Phineas had reappeared in front of his Slytherin banner. ‘My great-great-grandson has always had an odd taste in house-guests.’

‘Come here, then,’ Dumbledore said to the Potters and the Weasleys. ‘And quickly, before anyone else joins us.’

Harry, Avalon and the others gathered around Dumbledore’s desk.

‘You have all used a Portkey before?’ asked Dumbledore, and they nodded, each reaching out to touch some part of the blackened kettle. ‘Good. On the count of three, then ... one ... two ...’

Avalon felt a powerful jerk behind her navel, the ground vanished from beneath her feet, her hand was glued to the kettle; she was banging into the others as they all sped forwards in a swirl of colors and a rush of wind, the kettle pulling them onwards ... until her feet hit the ground so hard her knees buckled, the kettle clattered to the ground, and somewhere close at hand a voice said:

‘Back again, the blood-traitor brats. Is it true their father’s dying?’

‘OUT!’ roared a second voice.

Avalon scrambled to her feet and looked around; they had arrived in the gloomy basement kitchen of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. The only sources of light were the fire and one guttering candle, which illuminated the remains of a solitary supper. Kreacher was disappearing through the door to the hall, looking back at them malevolently as he hitched up his loincloth; Sirius was hurrying towards them all, looking anxious. He was unshaven and still in his day clothes; there was also a slightly Mundungus-like whiff of stale drink about him.

‘What’s going on?’ he said, stretching out a hand to help Ginny up. ‘Phineas Nigellus said Arthur’s been badly injured -’

‘Ask Harry and Avalon,’ said Fred.

‘Yeah, I want to hear this for myself,’ said George.

The twins and Ginny were staring at them. Kreacher’s footsteps had stopped on the stairs outside.

‘It was -’ Harry began; this was even worse than telling McGonagall and Dumbledore. ‘I had a - a kind of - vision ...’

And, with Avalon by his side, he told them all that he had seen, though he altered the story so that it sounded as though he had watched from the sidelines as the snake attacked, rather than from behind the snake’s own eyes. Ron, who was still very white, gave him a fleeting look, but did not speak. When Harry had finished, Fred, George and Ginny continued to stare at him for a moment.

‘Is Mum here?’ said Fred, turning to Sirius.

‘She probably doesn’t even know what’s happened yet,’ said Sirius. ‘The important thing was to get you away before Umbridge could interfere. I expect Dumbledore’s letting Molly know now.’

‘We’ve got to go to St Mungo’s,’ said Ginny urgently. She looked around at her brothers; they were of course still in their pyjamas. ‘Sirius, can you lend us cloaks or anything?’

‘Hang on, you can’t go tearing off to St Mungo’s!’ said Sirius.

‘Course we can go to St Mungo’s if we want,’ said Fred, with a mulish expression. ‘He’s our dad!’

‘And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?’

‘What does that matter?’ said George hotly.

‘It matters because we don’t want to draw attention to the fact that Harry and Avalon are having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away!’ said Sirius angrily. ‘Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?’

Fred and George looked as though they could not care less what the Ministry made of anything. Ron was still ashen-faced and silent.

Ginny said, ‘Somebody else could have told us ... we could have heard it somewhere other than Harry.’

‘Like who?’ said Sirius impatiently. ‘Listen, your dad’s been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order’s -’

‘We don’t care about the dumb Order!’ shouted Fred.

‘It’s our dad dying we’re talking about!’ yelled George.

‘Your father knew what he was getting into and he won’t thank you for messing things up for the Order!’ said Sirius, equally angry. ‘This is how it is - this is why you’re not in the Order - you don’t understand - there are things worth dying for!’

‘Easy for you to say, stuck here!’ bellowed Fred. ‘I don’t see you risking your neck!’

The little color remaining in Sirius’s face drained from it. He looked for a moment as though he would quite like to hit Fred, but when he spoke, it was in a voice of determined calm.

‘I know it’s hard, but we’ve all got to act as though we don’t know anything yet. We’ve got to stay put, at least until we hear from your mother, all right?’

Fred and George still looked mutinous. Ginny, however, took a few steps over to the nearest chair and sank into it. Harry looked at Ron, who made a funny movement somewhere between a nod and a shrug, and they sat down too. The twins glared at Sirius for another minute, then took seats either side of Ginny. Avalon sat on a chair near the wall, silently wishing she could be anywhere else.


	11. OPHELIA

At ten past five in the morning by Ron’s watch, the door swung open and Mrs. Weasley entered the kitchen. She was extremely pale, but when they all turned to look at her, Fred, Ron and Harry half rising from their chairs, she gave a wan smile.

‘He’s going to be all right,’ she said, her voice weak with tiredness. ‘He’s sleeping. We can all go and see him later. Bill’s sitting with him now; he’s going to take the morning off work.’

Fred fell back into his chair with his hands over his face. George and Ginny got up, walked swiftly over to their mother and hugged her. Ron gave a very shaky laugh and slumped back into his chair

Two hours later, Olivia and Sienna arrived at Grimmauld Place. Olivia got a warm hug from her father as soon as she stepped in the house, while Sienna got suspicious side glances from everyone who didn’t know her well. 

‘What are  _ you  _ doing here?’ Asked Molly.

‘Mrs. Weasley, I-’

‘We invited her, mum,’ interrupted Fred, rising from his chair.

‘We thought it wouldn’t be an issue,’ said George, joining his brother.

‘Of course it is an issue! Do you even know her family?’ Mrs. Weasley retorted, her hands on her hips, infuriated.

‘She’s our friend, we know who she is and she is not like any of her relatives.’ Olivia stepped in, crossing her arms over her chest.

‘I don’t mean to bother, Mrs. Weasley, I know this is a hard time,’ Sienna began, her head held high, her hand gripping on her trunk, ready to leave if necessary. She turned to Fred and George. ‘I told you guys this was a bad idea, I should go.’

‘You’re not going anywhere.’ Fred said, taking her trunk from her hands. ‘We invited you here and you’re staying.’ He turned to his mother. ‘Mum, can we talk to you in private?’

Reluctantly, Mrs. Weasley followed Fred and George back into the kitchen.

They did not come back for fifteen minutes. Olivia had her hand on Sienna’s shoulder, trying to comfort her friend. Sienna’s heart was beating fast inside her chest, she hated being associated with her family in any way, but she knew it was bound to happen when she got to Grimmauld Place.

She was trying to think of where else she could go spend Christmas when Fred, George, and Mrs. Weasley got out of the kitchen, she had her lips pursed in a thin line, while the twins were smiling.

‘You can stay, as long as you don’t tell anyone we’re here,’ conceded Mrs. Weasley, although she did not seem happy to do so.

‘Told you mum wouldn’t mind your presence,’ said Fred, nudging Sienna on the arm. She shot him a look that made him immediately shut up.

_ +++++ _

Everyone but Avalon and Harry spent the rest of the morning sleeping. They didn’t speak much as they sat side by side in the kitchen, near the fireplace, Avalon rested her head on Harry’s shoulder, while he rested his on top of her head, neither of them wanted to fall asleep, scared of what kind of dreams awaited for them as soon as they closed their eyes.

Their trunks arrived from Hogwarts while they were eating lunch, so they could dress as Muggles for the trip to St Mungo’s. Everybody, except Harry and Avalon, was riotously happy and talkative as they changed out of their robes into jeans and sweatshirts. When Tonks and Mad-Eye turned up to escort them across London, they greeted them gleefully, laughing at the bowler hat Mad-Eye was wearing at an angle to conceal his magical eye and assuring him, truthfully, that Tonks, whose hair was short and bright pink again, would attract far less attention on the Underground.

Tonks was very interested in their vision of the attack on Mr. Weasley, something Harry and Avalon were not remotely interested in discussing.

‘There isn’t any Seer blood in your family, is there?’ she enquired curiously, as they sat side by side on a train rattling towards the heart of the city.

‘No,’ said Harry, thinking of Professor Trelawney and feeling insulted.

‘No,’ said Tonks musingly, ‘no, I suppose it’s not really a prophecy you’re doing, is it? I mean, you two are not seeing the future, you’re seeing the present ... it’s odd, isn’t it? Useful, though...’

They didn’t answer; fortunately, they got out at the next stop, a station in the very heart of London, and in the bustle of leaving the train he was able to allow Fred and George to get between them and Tonks, who was leading the way. They all followed her up the escalator, Moody clunking along at the back of the group, his bowler tilted low and one gnarled hand stuck in between the buttons of his coat, clutching his wand. Harry thought he sensed the concealed eye staring hard at him. Trying to avoid any more questions about his dream, he asked Mad-Eye where St Mungo’s was hidden.

‘Not far from here,’ grunted Moody as they stepped out into the wintry air on a broad store-lined street packed with Christmas shoppers. He pushed Harry a little ahead of him and stumped along just behind; Avalon knew the eye was rolling in all directions under the tilted hat. ‘Wasn’t easy to find a good location for a hospital. Nowhere in Diagon Alley was big enough and we couldn’t have it underground like the Ministry - wouldn’t be healthy. In the end, they managed to get hold of a building up here. The theory was, sick wizards could come and go and just blend in with the crowd.’

‘Here we go,’ said Moody a moment later. 

They had arrived outside a large, old-fashioned, red-brick department store called Purge & Dowse Ltd. The place had a shabby, miserable air; the window displays consisted of a few chipped dummies with their wigs askew, standing at random and modeling fashions at least ten years out of date. Large signs on all the dusty doors read: ‘Closed for Refurbishment’. Avalon distinctly heard a large woman laden with plastic shopping bags say to her friend as they passed, ‘It’s never open, that place...’

‘Right,’ said Tonks, beckoning them towards a window displaying nothing but a particularly ugly female dummy. Its false eyelashes were hanging off and it was modeling a green nylon pinafore dress. ‘Everybody ready?’

They nodded, clustering around her. Moody gave Harry another shove between the shoulder blades to urge him forward and Tonks leaned close to the glass, looking up at the very ugly dummy, her breath steaming up the glass. ‘Wotcher,’ she said, ‘we’re here to see Arthur Weasley.’

Avalon thought how absurd it was for Tonks to expect the dummy to hear her talking so quietly through a sheet of glass, with buses rumbling along behind her and all the racket of a street full of shoppers. Then she reminded himself that dummies couldn’t hear anyway. Next second, her mouth opened in shock as the dummy gave a tiny nod and beckoned with its jointed finger, and Tonks had seized Ginny and Mrs. Weasley by the elbows, stepped right through the glass and vanished.

Fred, George, and Ron stepped after them. Harry glanced around at the jostling crowd; not one of them seemed to have a glance to spare for window displays as ugly as those of Purge & Dowse Ltd; nor did any of them seem to have noticed that six people had just melted into thin air in front of them.

‘C’mon,’ growled Moody, giving Harry and Avalon yet another poke in the back, and together they stepped forward through what felt like a sheet of cool water, emerging quite warm and dry on the other side.

There was no sign of the ugly dummy or the space where she had stood. They were in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of witches and wizards sat upon rickety wooden chairs, some looking perfectly normal and perusing out-of-date copies of Witch Weekly, others sporting gruesome disfigurements such as elephant trunks or extra hands sticking out of their chests. The room was scarcely less quiet than the street outside, for many of the patients were making very peculiar noises: a sweaty-faced witch in the center of the front row, who was fanning herself vigorously with a copy of the Daily Prophet, kept letting off a high-pitched whistle as steam came pouring out of her mouth; a grubby-looking warlock in the corner clanged like a bell every time he moved and, with each clang, his head vibrated horribly so that he had to seize himself by the ears to hold it steady.

Witches and wizards in lime-green robes were walking up and down the rows, asking questions and making notes on clipboards like Umbridge’s. Avalon noticed the emblem embroidered on their chests: a wand and bone, crossed.

‘Are they doctors?’ she asked Ron quietly.

‘Doctors?’ said Ron, looking startled. ‘Those Muggle nutters that cut people up? Nah, they’re Healers.’

‘Over here!’ called Mrs. Weasley, above the renewed clanging of the warlock in the corner, and they followed her to the queue in front of a plump blonde witch seated at a desk marked Enquiries. The wall behind her was covered in notices and posters saying things like: A CLEAN CAULDRON KEEPS POTIONS FROM BECOMING POISONS and ANTIDOTES ARE ANTI-DON’TS UNLESS APPROVED BY A QUALIFIED HEALER. There was also a large portrait of a witch with long silver ringlets which was labeled:

Dilys Derwent   
St Mungo’s Healer 1722-1741   
Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry 1741-1768

Dilys was eyeing the Weasley party as though counting them; when Avalon caught her eye she gave a tiny wink, walked sideways out of her portrait and vanished.

Meanwhile, at the front of the queue, a young wizard was performing an odd on-the-spot jig and trying, in between yelps of pain, to explain his predicament to the witch behind the desk.

‘It’s these - ouch - shoes my brother gave me - ow - they’re eating my - OUCH - feet - look at them, there must be some kind of - AARGH - jinx on them and I can’t - AAAAARGH - get them off.’ He hopped from one foot to the other as though dancing on hot coals.

‘The shoes don’t prevent you reading, do they?’ said the blonde witch, irritably pointing at a large sign to the left of her desk. ‘You want Spell Damage, fourth floor. Just like it says on the floor guide. Next!’

As the wizard hobbled and pranced sideways out of the way, the Weasley party moved forward a few steps and Avalon read the floor guide:

ARTEFACT ACCIDENTS .............................. Ground floor   
Cauldron explosion, wand backfiring, broom crashes, etc.   
CREATURE-INDUCED INJURIES ................. First floor   
Bites, stings, burns, embedded spines, etc.   
MAGICAL BUGS .......................................... Second floor   
Contagious maladies, e.g. dragon pox, vanishing sickness, scrofungulus, etc.   
POTION AND PLANT POISONING ............ Third floor   
Rashes, regurgitation, uncontrollable giggling, etc.   
SPELL DAMAGE .......................................... Fourth floor   
Unliftable jinxes, hexes, incorrectly applied charms, etc.   
VISITORS’TEAROOM / HOSPITAL SHOP ..... Fifth floor   
IF YOU ARE UNSURE WHERE TO GO, INCAPABLE OF NORMAL SPEECH OR UNABLE TO REMEMBER WHY YOU ARE HERE, OUR WELCOME WITCH WILL BE PLEASED TO HELP.

A very old, stooped wizard with a hearing trumpet had shuffled to the front of the queue now. ‘I’m here to see Broderick Bode!’ he wheezed.

‘Ward forty-nine, but I’m afraid you’re wasting your time,’ said the witch dismissively. ‘He’s completely addled, you know - still thinks he’s a teapot. Next!’

A harassed-looking wizard was holding his small daughter tightly by the ankle while she flapped around his head using the immensely large, feathery wings that had sprouted right out through the back of her romper suit.

‘Fourth floor,’ said the witch, in a bored voice, without asking, and the man disappeared through the double doors beside the desk, holding his daughter like an oddly shaped balloon. ‘Next!’

Mrs. Weasley moved forward to the desk. 

‘Hello,’ she said, ‘my husband, Arthur Weasley, was supposed to be moved to a different ward this morning, could you tell us -?’

‘Arthur Weasley?’ said the witch, running her finger down a long list in front of her. ‘Yes, first floor, second door on the right, Dai Llewellyn Ward.’

‘Thank you,’ said Mrs. Weasley. ‘Come on, you lot.’

They followed her through the double doors and along the narrow corridor beyond, which was lined with more portraits of famous Healers and lit by crystal bubbles full of candles that floated up on the ceiling, looking like giant soapsuds. More witches and wizards in lime-green robes walked in and out of the doors they passed; a foul-smelling yellow gas wafted into the passageway as they passed one door, and every now and then they heard distant wailing. They climbed a flight of stairs and entered the Creature-Induced Injuries corridor, where the second door on the right bore the words:  _ ‘Dangerous’ Dai Llewellyn Ward: Serious Bites. Underneath this was a card in a brass holder on which had been handwritten: Healer-in-Charge: Hippocrates Smethwyck. Trainee Healer: Augustus Pye.  _

‘We’ll wait outside, Molly,’ Tonks said. ‘Arthur won’t want too many visitors at once ... it ought to be just the family first.’

Mad-Eye growled his approval of this idea and set himself with his back against the corridor wall, his magical eye spinning in all directions. Harry and Avalon drew back, too, but Mrs. Weasley reached out her hands and pushed them through the door, saying, ‘Don’t be silly, you two, Arthur wants to thank you both.’

The ward was small and rather dingy, as the only window was narrow and set high in the wall facing the door. Most of the light came from more shining crystal bubbles clustered in the middle of the ceiling. The walls were of panelled oak and there was a portrait of a rather vicious-looking wizard on the wall, captioned: Urquhart Rackharrow, 1612-1697, Inventor of the Entrail-expelling Curse.

There were only three patients. Mr. Weasley was occupying the bed at the far end of the ward beside the tiny window. Avalon was pleased and relieved to see that he was propped up on several pillows and reading the Daily Prophet by the solitary ray of sunlight falling on to his bed. He looked up as they walked towards him and, seeing who it was, beamed.

‘Hello!’ he called, throwing the Prophet aside. ‘Bill just left, Molly, had to get back to work, but he says he’ll drop in on you later.’

‘How are you, Arthur?’ asked Mrs. Weasley, bending down to kiss his cheek and looking anxiously into his face. ‘You’re still looking a bit peaky.’

‘I feel absolutely fine,’ said Mr. Weasley brightly, holding out his good arm to give Ginny a hug. ‘If they could only take the bandages off, I’d be fit to go home.’ 

‘Why can’t they take them off, Dad?’ asked Fred.

‘Well, I start bleeding like mad every time they try,’ said Mr. Weasley cheerfully, reaching across for his wand, which lay on his bedside cabinet, and waving it so that seven extra chairs appeared at his bedside to seat them all. ‘It seems there was some rather unusual kind of poison in that snake’s fangs that keeps wounds open. They’re sure they’ll find an antidote, though; they say they’ve had much worse cases than mine, and in the meantime I just have to keep taking a Blood-Replenishing Potion every hour. But that fellow over there,’ he said, dropping his voice and nodding towards the bed opposite in which a man lay looking green and sickly and staring at the ceiling. ‘Bitten by a werewolf, poor chap. No cure at all.’

‘A werewolf?’ whispered Mrs. Weasley, looking alarmed. ‘Is he safe in a public ward? Shouldn’t he be in a private room?’

‘It’s two weeks till full moon,’ Mr. Weasley reminded her quietly. ‘They’ve been talking to him this morning, the Healers, you know, trying to persuade him he’ll be able to lead an almost normal life. I said to him - didn’t mention names, of course - but I said I knew a werewolf personally, very nice man, who finds the condition quite easy to manage.’ 

‘What did he say?’ asked George.

‘Said he’d give me another bite if I didn’t shut up,’ said Mr. Weasley sadly. ‘And that woman over there,’ he indicated the only other occupied bed, which was right beside the door, ‘won’t tell the Healers what bit her, which makes us all think it must have been something she was handling illegally. Whatever it was took a real chunk out of her leg, very nasty smell when they take off the dressings.’

‘So, you going to tell us what happened, Dad?’ asked Fred, pulling his chair closer to the bed.

‘Well, you already know, don’t you?’ said Mr. Weasley, with a significant smile at Harry and Avalon, who sat next to each other. ‘It’s very simple - I’d had a very long day, dozed off, got sneaked up on and bitten.’

‘Is it in the Prophet, you being attacked?’ asked Fred, indicating the newspaper Mr. Weasley had cast aside.

‘No, of course not,’ said Mr. Weasley, with a slightly bitter smile, ‘the Ministry wouldn’t want everyone to know a dirty great serpent got -‘

‘Arthur!’ Mrs. Weasley warned him.

‘- got - er - me,’ Mr. Weasley said hastily, though Avalon was quite sure that was not what he had meant to say.

‘So where were you when it happened, Dad?’ asked George.

‘That’s my business,’ said Mr. Weasley, though with a small smile. He snatched up the Daily Prophet, shook it open again and said, ‘I was just reading about Willy Widdershins’s arrest when you arrived. You know Willy turned out to be behind those regurgitating toilets back in the summer? One of his jinxes backfired, the toilet exploded and they found him lying unconscious in the wreckage covered from head to foot in -’

‘When you say you were “on duty”,’ Fred interrupted in a low voice, ‘what were you doing?’

‘You heard your father,’ whispered Mrs. Weasley, ‘we are not discussing this here! Go on about Willy Widdershins, Arthur.’

‘Well, don’t ask me how, but he actually got off the toilet charge,’ said Mr. Weasley grimly. ‘I can only suppose gold changed hands -’

‘You were guarding it, weren’t you?’ said George quietly. ‘The weapon? The thing You-Know-Who’s after?’

‘George, be quiet!’ snapped Mrs. Weasley.

‘Anyway,’ said Mr Weasley, in a raised voice, ‘this time Willy’s been caught selling biting doorknobs to Muggles and I don’t think he’ll be able to worm his way out of it because, according to this article, two Muggles have lost fingers and are now in St Mungo’s for emergency bone re-growth and memory modification. Just think of it, Muggles in St Mungo’s! I wonder which ward they’re in?’

And he looked eagerly around as though hoping to see a signpost.

‘Didn’t you say You-Know-Who’s got a snake, Harry?’ asked Fred, looking at his father for a reaction. ‘A massive one? You saw it the night he returned, didn’t you?’

‘That’s enough,’ said Mrs. Weasley crossly. ‘Mad-Eye and Tonks are outside, Arthur, they want to come and see you. And you lot can wait outside,’she added to her children, Harry and Avalon. ‘You can come and say goodbye afterwards. Go on.’

They trooped back into the corridor. Mad-Eye and Tonks went in and closed the door of the ward behind them. Fred raised his eyebrows.

‘Fine,’ he said coolly, rummaging in his pockets, ‘be like that. Don’t tell us anything.’

‘Looking for these?’ said George, holding out what looked like a tangle of flesh-colored string.

‘You read my mind,’ said Fred, grinning. ‘Let’s see if St Mungo’s puts Imperturbable Charms on its ward doors, shall we?’

He and George disentangled the string and separated six Extendable Ears from each other. Fred and George handed them around. Harry hesitated to take one, while Avalon promptly took hers.

‘Go on, Harry, take it! You saved Dad’s life. If anyone’s got the right to eavesdrop on him, it’s you.’

Grinning in spite of himself, Harry took the end of the string and inserted it into his ear as the twins had done.

‘OK, go!’ Fred whispered.

The flesh-colored strings wriggled like long skinny worms and snaked under the door. At first, Avalon could hear nothing, then she jumped as she heard Tonks whispering as clearly as though she were standing right beside her.

‘... they searched the whole area but couldn’t find the snake anywhere. It just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur ... but You-Know-Who can’t have expected a snake to get in, can he?’

‘I reckon he sent it as a lookout,’ growled Moody, ”cause he’s not had any luck so far, has he? No, I reckon he’s trying to get a clearer picture of what he’s facing and if Arthur hadn’t been there the beast would’ve had a lot more time to look around. So, the Potters say they saw it all happen?’

‘Yes,’ said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded rather uneasy. ‘You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry and Avalon to see something like this.’

‘Yeah, well,’ said Moody, ‘there’s something funny about the Potters, we all know that.’

‘Dumbledore seemed worried about them when I spoke to him this morning,’ whispered Mrs. Weasley.

‘Course he’s worried,’ growled Moody. ‘They are seeing things from inside You-Know-Who’s snake. Obviously, they don’t realize what that means, but if You-Know-Who’s possessing them -’

Avalon pulled the Extendable Ear out of her own and saw Harry do the same, looking at her. She looked around at the others. They were all staring at them, the strings still trailing from their ears, looking suddenly fearful.

_ +++++ _

When they arrived back at Grimmauld Place Avalon went straight up to her and the other girl’s bedroom. She’d hoped to find it empty, but instead, she found Olivia and Sienna sitting on one of the beds, talking excitedly.

They stopped immediately when Avalon stepped into the room. ‘Is everything okay, Avalon? You look a little pale,’ said Sienna.

‘I’m fine, just tired,’ she replied flatly, sitting on her bed.

Olivia raised her eyebrows at her, taken aback by Avalon’s harsh tone. ‘Uh… we’ll leave you alone then.’

Olivia got up and walked out of the room, followed by Sienna. Avalon laid down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She felt her heart ache in a way she could not explain, it was almost as if someone was taking her heart in their hands and squeezing it until there was nothing left of it. 

She did not want to go downstairs and see everyone’s faces, looking at her like she was some kind of threat they needed to keep away from, she did not want to bother them with her presence.

Her thoughts and fears were slowed down by the extreme exhaustion she felt. It didn’t take long for her to be fast asleep.

‘Avalon,’ said Sienna, her voice sounded like it was coming from very far away, Avalon didn’t even bother to open her eyes, ‘Mrs. Weasley says dinner is ready, but she’ll save you something if you want to stay in bed.’

Avalon didn’t say anything, so Sienna left and closed the door behind her.

The next day Hermione arrived. Avalon only came out of her room to greet her, her intention was to get back to her room after she said ‘hi’, but instead Hermione pulled her all the way to Harry’s room and began banging her fist on the door.

‘I know you’re in there,’ said Hermione. ‘Will you please come out? I want to talk to you.’

‘What are  _ you _ doing here?’ Harry asked her, pulling open. ‘I thought you were skiing with your mum and dad?’

‘Well, to tell the truth, skiing’s not really my thing,’ said Hermione. ‘So, I’ve come here for Christmas.’ There was snow in her hair and her face was pink with cold. ‘But don’t tell Ron. I told him skiing’s really good because he kept laughing so much. Mum and Dad are a bit disappointed, but I’ve told them that everyone who is serious about the exams is staying at Hogwarts to study. They want me to do well, they’ll understand.’

They all stepped in his bedroom and they were soon joined by Ron and Ginny.

‘I came on the Knight Bus,’ said Hermione airily, pulling off her jacket before Harry had time to speak. ‘Dumbledore told me what had happened yesterday morning, but I had to wait for term to end officially before setting off. Umbridge is already livid that you lot disappeared right under her nose, even though Dumbledore told her Mr. Weasley was in St Mungo’s and he’d given you all permission to visit. So...’

She sat down next to Ginny, and the two girls and Ron all looked up at Harry and Avalon.

‘How’re you two feeling?’ asked Hermione.

‘Fine,’ said Harry stiffly. Avalon didn’t even bother to answer.

‘Oh, don’t lie, Harry,’ she said impatiently. ‘Ron and Ginny say you two have been hiding from everyone since you got back from St Mungo’s.’

‘They do, do they?’ said Avalon, glaring at Ron and Ginny as if they had betrayed her. Ron looked down at his feet but Ginny seemed quite unabashed.

‘Well, you have!’ she said. ‘And you won’t look at any of us!’

‘It’s you lot who won’t look at us!’ said Harry angrily.

‘Maybe you’re taking it in turns to look, and keep missing each other,’ suggested Hermione, the corners of her mouth twitching. 

‘Very funny,’snapped Harry, turning away.

‘Oh, stop feeling all misunderstood,’ said Hermione sharply. ‘Look, the others have told me what you overheard last night on the Extendable Ears -‘

‘Yeah?’ growled Harry, his hands deep in his pockets as he watched the snow now falling thickly outside. ‘All been talking about me, have you? Well, I’m getting used to it.’

‘We wanted to talk _ to you _ , Harry,’ said Ginny, ‘but as you’ve been hiding ever since we got back -’

‘I didn’t want anyone to talk to me,’ said Harry, standing next to his sister, who just decided to stay quiet.

‘Well, that was a bit stupid of you,’ said Ginny angrily, ‘seeing as you don’t know anyone but me who’s been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels.’

‘I forgot,’ he said.

‘Lucky you,’ said Ginny coolly.

‘I’m sorry,’ Harry said, and he meant it. ‘So ... so, do you think I’m… uh, we are being possessed, then?’

‘Well, can you remember everything you’ve been doing?’ Ginny asked them. ‘Are there big blank periods where you don’t know what you’ve been up to?’

‘No.’ Harry took too long to answer, so Avalon answered instead. Harry shook his head, agreeing with her.

‘Then You-Know-Who hasn’t ever possessed you,’ said Ginny simply. ‘When he did it to me, I couldn’t remember what I’d been doing for hours at a time. I’d find myself somewhere and not know how I got there.’

‘That dream we had about your dad and the snake, though -‘

‘Harry, you two have had these dreams before,’ Hermione said. ‘You had flashes of what Voldemort was up to last year.’

‘This was different,’ said Harry, shaking his head. ‘I was inside that snake. It was like I was the snake ... what if Voldemort somehow transported me to London -?’

‘One day,’ said Hermione, sounding thoroughly exasperated, ‘you’ll read Hogwarts: A History, and perhaps it will remind you that you can’t Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts. Even Voldemort couldn’t just make you fly out of your dormitory, Harry.’

‘You didn’t leave your bed, mate,’ said Ron. ‘I saw you thrashing around in your sleep for at least a minute before we could wake you up. And I’m sure none of Avalon’s dorm mates saw her flying out of a window either.’

‘My dorm mates sleep like they’ve been stupefied, nothing can wake them up. You’d be surprised if you knew how many times I sneaked out of my dormitory without them noticing.’ Avalon said and the rest of them laughed. Avalon couldn’t help but smile a little.

Her heart felt a little lighter, relieved of the heavy weight that had been upon it during the last few hours.

_ +++++ _

After lunch, on Christmas day everyone left to pay a visit to Mr. Weasley on St Mungo’s, leaving only Olivia and Sirius behind. 

Olivia and Sirius sat in the kitchen in silence. Olivia had never spent a lot of time with her father as he had always been locked up in Azkaban or on the run, she’d always spent summer and Christmas at her adoptive mother’s house.

Surprisingly, Olivia was the one who decided to start a conversation. ‘Sirius, what was my mother like?’

Sirius stared at her, stunned for a moment. He certainly did not expect that question. ‘She was uh… really cool.’

‘Really cool?’ She raised her eyebrows at him, disappointment taking over her features. ‘Is that all you have to say about her?’

‘I… I haven’t talked about Ophelia to anyone in a very long while and-’

‘I’m not just  _ “anyone”,  _ I’m your daughter. Don’t you think I deserve to know more about my own mother?’

Sirius took a deep breath, folding his hands on top of the table. ‘You’re right, you deserve this.’ He looked down at his hands, fiddling with his fingers. ‘Ophelia was my friend before everything, she was always there when I needed someone, she always had my back, she always came up with lies to get out of detention, and when she was trying to find out who her parents were… well, I was there for her too.’

Olivia didn’t say anything, she was sitting on the edge of her seat, taking in every word he was saying. She didn’t even realize her lips had curled up into a small smile.

‘I wish… I wish I had realized my feelings for her sooner, I wish we’d had more time.’ He didn't take his eyes off his hands, afraid that if he looked up at Olivia she would have disappointment in her eyes. ‘She got pregnant with you when we were on our final year at Hogwarts, she was so scared she wouldn’t know how to raise a child, but she was still happy.’

‘And you? Were you scared?’ Olivia asked, looking at her father.

He looked up at her, smiling. ‘I was the happiest man alive.’

She smiled at him. It wasn’t much, but it was all she knew about her mother, and for now, it was enough.

‘Hang on, I’ll be right back,’ said Sirius. He quickly pushed himself up and hurried out of the room. He came back after a few minutes, holding something small.

‘Sirius, what-’

‘Here,’ he interrupted her, ‘I want you to have this.’ 

He gave her a small box, inside of it was a silver chain with two silver rings on it. ‘What’s this?’ She asked, holding up the necklace.

‘It’s our engagement rings… I asked your mother to marry me when we left school, she said yes, but we didn’t have time to do it… she was gone before we…’

Olivia put her hand on top of his, trying to comfort him, even though there were tears in her eyes. ‘Thank you, dad. For everything.’

To his astonishment, Olivia got up and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, resting his chin on top of her head. Sirus silently wished he had made different choices in his youth, so maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t have had so little time with his daughter, maybe things could have been different.


	12. OCCLUMENCY

They arrived at Hogwarts on Sunday. Avalon and Nott spent the whole day walking around the castle, talking about what happened during the Christmas break. Nott told her spending Christmas with his father wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, but she knew he was lying, judging by the face he made every time he mentioned his father, she knew it had been dreadful.

When Monday came Avalon told Nott about her up-coming Occlumency lessons with Snape. She did not want to go, she prayed Snape would come up with an excuse to cancel the lesson.

By six o’clock that evening, Avalon met Harry outside of Snape’s office. ‘Ready?’ She asked.

‘No,’ he said and pushed the door open.

The shadowy room was lined with shelves bearing hundreds of glass jars in which slimy bits of animals and plants were suspended in variously colored potions. In one corner stood the cupboard full of ingredients that Snape had once accused Harry - not without reason - of robbing. Avalon’s attention was drawn towards the desk, however, where a shallow stone basin engraved with runes and symbols lay in a pool of candlelight. Avalon recognized it at once as Dumbledore’s Pensieve, she wondered what it was doing there.

‘Shut the door behind you, Potter,’ said Snape.

‘Well, you know why you are here,’ he said. ‘The Headmaster has asked me to teach you both Occlumency. I can only hope that you prove more adept at it than at Potions.’

‘Right,’ said Harry tersely. Avalon didn’t think that statement was directed at her, she was fairly good at potions, although Snape always found a way to criticize her work.

‘This may not be an ordinary class,’ said Snape, his eyes narrowed malevolently, ‘but I am still your teacher and both of you will, therefore, call me “sir” or “Professor” at all times.’

‘Yes...  _ sir, _ ’ said Harry. Avalon merely nodded, she almost wanted him to shut up and start their lesson, just so she could get out of there as soon as possible.

‘Now, Occlumency. As I told you back in your dear godfather’s kitchen, this branch of magic seals the mind against magical intrusion and influence.’  

‘And why does Professor Dumbledore think I need it, sir?’ said Harry, looking directly into Snape’s eyes and wondering whether Snape would answer.

Snape looked back at him for a moment and then said contemptuously, ‘Surely even you could have worked that out by now, Potter? The Dark Lord is highly skilled at Legilimency -’

‘What’s that?  _ Sir? _ ’

‘It is the ability to extract feelings and memories from another person’s mind-’

‘He can read minds?’ said Harry quickly, his worst fears confirmed. Avalon felt like stomping on his foot, maybe then he would shut up too.

‘You have no subtlety, Potter,’ said Snape, his dark eyes glittering. ‘You do not understand fine distinctions. It is one of the shortcomings that makes you such a lamentable potion-maker.’

Snape paused for a moment, apparently to savor the pleasure of insulting Harry, before continuing. Avalon wondered if Snape could ever speak to them without his diminishing tone.

‘Only Muggles talk of “mind-reading”. The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing - or at least, most minds are.’ He smirked. ‘It is true, however, that those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly. The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is lying to him. Only those skilled at Occlumency are able to shut down those feelings and memories that contradict the lie, and so can utter falsehoods in his presence without Detection.’ 

‘So he could know what we’re thinking right now? Sir?’

‘The Dark Lord is at a considerable distance and the walls and grounds of Hogwarts are guarded by many ancient spells and charms to ensure the bodily and mental safety of those who dwell within them,’ said Snape. ‘Time and space matter in magic, Potter. Eye contact is often essential to Legilimency.’

‘Well, then why do we have to learn it?’ Asked Avalon. Deep down she knew she just asked that to piss Snape off.

‘The usual rules do not seem to apply to the two of you. The curse that failed to kill you seems to have forged some kind of connection between you two and the Dark Lord. The evidence suggests that at times when your minds are most relaxed and vulnerable - when you are asleep, for instance - you are sharing the Dark Lord’s thoughts and emotions. The Headmaster thinks it inadvisable for this to continue. He wishes me to teach you how to close your mind to the Dark Lord.’

Avalon’s mind was buzzing, none of this made sense to her.

‘But why does Professor Dumbledore want to stop it?’ Harry asked abruptly. ‘I don’t like it much, but it’s been useful, hasn’t it? I mean ... we saw that snake attack Mr. Weasley and if we hadn’t, Professor Dumbledore wouldn’t have been able to save him, would he? Sir?’

Snape stared at Harry for a few moments, tracing his mouth with his finger. When he spoke again, it was slowly and deliberately, as though he weighed every word.

‘It appears that the Dark Lord has been unaware of the connection between you two and himself until very recently. Up till now it seems that you have been experiencing his emotions, and sharing his thoughts, without his being any the wiser. However, the vision you both had shortly before Christmas-’

‘The one with the snake and Mr. Weasley?’

‘Do not interrupt me, Potter,’ said Snape in a dangerous voice. ‘As I was saying, the vision you had shortly before Christmas represented such a powerful incursion upon the Dark Lord’s thoughts -’

‘We saw inside the snake’s head, not his!’

‘I thought I just told you not to interrupt me, Potter?’

Avalon silently wished Harry would just let Snape speak for once, as much as she wanted to get out of there quickly, she felt like she might be getting answers to questions she had been asking herself for a long while, and if Harry didn’t stay quiet and listen, Snape would just give up on trying to explain.

‘How come I saw through the snake’s eyes if it’s Voldemort’s thoughts I'm sharing?’

‘ _ Do not say the Dark Lord’s name! _ ’ spat Snape.

There was a nasty silence. They glared at each other across the Pensieve.

‘Professor Dumbledore says his name,’ said Harry quietly.

‘Dumbledore is an extremely powerful wizard,’ Snape muttered. ‘While he may feel secure enough to use the name ... the rest of us ...’ He rubbed his left forearm, apparently unconsciously, on the spot where Avalon knew the Dark Mark was burned into his skin.

‘I just wanted to know,’ Harry began again, forcing his voice back to politeness, ‘why -’

‘You seem to have visited the snake’s mind because that was where the Dark Lord was at that particular moment,’ snarled Snape. ‘He was possessing the snake at the time and so you dreamed you were inside it, too.’

‘And Vol— he - realized we were there?’

‘It seems so,’ said Snape coolly.

‘How do you know?’ said Avalon urgently. ‘Is this just Professor Dumbledore guessing, or -?’

‘I told you,’ said Snape, rigid in his chair, his eyes slits, ‘to call me “sir”.’

‘Yes,  _ sir, _ ’ said Avalon impatiently, discreetly rolling her eyes in annoyance, ‘but how do you know-?’

‘It is enough that we know,’ said Snape repressively. ‘The important point is that the Dark Lord is now aware that you are gaining access to his thoughts and feelings. He has also deduced that the process is likely to work in reverse; that is to say, he has realized that he might be able to access your thoughts and feelings in return -’

‘And he might try and make us do things?’ asked Harry. ‘Sir?’ he added hurriedly. A chill went down Avalon’s spine at the thought of Voldemort getting into her head, it was bad enough that she could get into his at times.

‘He might,’ said Snape, sounding cold and unconcerned. ‘Which brings us back to Occlumency.’

Snape pulled out his wand from an inside pocket of his robes and the twins tensed in their chairs, exchanging nervous glances with each other, but Snape merely raised the wand to his temple and placed its tip into the greasy roots of his hair. When he withdrew it, some silvery substance came away, stretching from temple to wand like a thick gossamer strand, which broke as he pulled the wand away from it and fell into the Pensieve, where it swirled silvery-white neither gas nor liquid. Twice more, Snape raised the wan to his temple and deposited the silvery substance into the stone basin, then, without offering any explanation of his behavior, he picked up the Pensieve carefully, removed it to a shelf out of their way and returned to face Harry with his wand held at the ready.

‘You’ll go first,’ he told Harry, ‘stand up and take out your wand.’

Harry got to his feet, feeling nervous. They faced each other with the desk between them, as Avalon drew back, standing near the wall, her heart almost leaping out of her throat.

‘You may use your wand to attempt to disarm me, or defend yourself in any other way you can think of,’ said Snape.

‘And what are you going to do?’ Harry asked, eyeing Snape’s wand apprehensively.

‘I am about to attempt to break into your mind,’ said Snape softly. ‘We are going to see how well you resist. I have been told that you have already shown aptitude at resisting the Imperius Curse. You will find that similar powers are needed for this ... brace yourself, now.  _ Legilimens! _ ’

Snape had struck before Harry was ready, before he had even begun to summon any force of resistance. Avalon held her breath as she watched Harry squirm and shout incoherently.

It went on for a few minutes and then Harry shot a Stinging Hex at Snape. He fell forwards, hitting his knee at one of the legs of the desk. He looked up at Snape, who had lowered his wand and was rubbing his wrist. There was an angry weal there, like a scorch mark.

‘Did you mean to produce a Stinging Hex?’ asked Snape coolly.

‘No,’ said Harry bitterly, getting up from the floor.

‘I thought not,’ said Snape contemptuously. ‘You let me get in too far. You lost control.’

‘Did you see everything I saw?’ Harry asked.

‘Flashes of it,’ said Snape, his lip curling. ‘To whom did the dog belong?’

‘My Aunt Marge,’ Harry muttered, hating Snape. Avalon stood there, clueless as to what they had seen.

‘Well, for a first attempt that was not as poor as it might have been,’ said Snape, raising his wand once more. ‘You managed to stop me eventually, though you wasted time and energy shouting. You must remain focused. Repel me with your brain and you will not need to resort to your wand.’

‘I’m trying,’ said Harry angrily, ‘but you’re not telling me how!’

‘Manners, Potter,’ said Snape dangerously. ‘Now, I want you to close your eyes.’

Harry threw him a filthy look before doing as he was told. 

‘Clear your mind, Potter,’ said Snape’s cold voice. ‘Let go of all emotion ...’

Avalon almost scoffed, she could tell her brother couldn’t let go of his own anger, as he had his hand clenched around his wand so tightly his knuckles went white.

‘You’re not doing it, Potter ... you will need more discipline than this … focus, now ...’

Harry took a deep breath. Avalon crossed her fingers, wishing he could just forget his anger for a moment.

‘Let’s go again ... on the count of three ... one - two - three -  _ Legilimens! _ ’

It was quicker this time. It ended with Harry yelling ‘NO!’ and falling down to his knees, his face buried in his hands, his breathing shallow. Avalon hurried to his side and got down to her knees next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder. ‘Harry…’

‘Get up!’ said Snape sharply. ‘Get up! You are not trying, you are making no effort. You are allowing me access to memories you fear, handing me weapons!’

‘Don’t you think that’s enough?’ Avalon snapped at Snape. ‘He has done enough for today!’

‘I told him to empty himself of emotion-’

‘Yeah? Well, I’m finding that hard at the moment,’ Harry snarled.

‘Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord!’ said Snape savagely. Avalon felt like she was one second away from hexing him. ‘Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked so easily - weak people, in other words - they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!’

‘He has done enough for today! There will be other lessons.’ Avalon insisted. She stood up, followed by Harry. 

‘Take his place,’ said Snape coolly.

‘What?’

‘Didn’t you say he is done? Well, it’s your turn now, Potter.’ He commanded, looking at Avalon almost as if he was daring her to back down.

‘Fine,’ she said and Harry backed up against the wall. She took her wand out and braced herself, she knew Snape would give her no time to disarm him.

‘On the count of three… one - two - three -  _ Legillimens!’ _

She was eight, Dudley had pushed her down the stairs, she sprained her wrist and had to patch herself up… she was ten, she watched Dudley beat up a younger kid and did nothing to stop it, in fear of getting hurt too… she watched her brother get sorted in Gryffindor while she was already sitting on the Slytherin table… she was alone, always alone, until McGonnagal paired her and Nott up during class… she stared at her parents and her brother’s reflection on the Mirror of Erised, all of them alive, happy…

_ No… Get out of my head!  _ She said... or thought, she couldn’t tell anymore. 

She felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and Snape’s office came back into view. She had fallen backwards and hit her head on the chair. She pushed herself up, rubbing the back of her head.

‘You’re not focusing enough!’ Spat Snape.

‘I’m trying!’ She spat back at him, so angry she felt like her blood was boiling inside her.

‘Both of you are not trying hard enough! You’re too distracted, too caught up in your emotions. Next time I want you two to have separate lessons.’

‘What? Why?’ Asked Harry.

Snape didn’t bother to answer Harry. ‘I want you back here same time on Wednesday. We will continue work then.’

‘Fine,’ said Harry. Avalon didn’t even seem to be listening, her heart was beating so hard inside her chest it was almost deafening.

‘You are to rid your mind of all emotion every night before sleep; empty it, make it blank and calm, you understand?’

‘Yes,’ said Harry and Avalon simply nodded.

‘And be warned... I shall know if you have not practiced...’

They left without another word. Harry gripped Avalon’s arm before she could walk away to her common room. ‘You’re ok?’

‘Yeah, just tired,’ she lied.

He nodded and let go of her arm. ‘See you around.’ He turned and walked away, back to the Gryffindor tower.

The Slytherin common room was almost empty when she arrived, except for two second-years lazily playing chess on the corner of the room and Nott, who was waiting for her on the couch by the fireplace. 

‘How did it go?’ He asked, walking up to her. His eyebrows raised in concern when he looked at her. ‘Are you okay? You’re shaking.’

‘I am?’ She said weakly. She looked down at her own hands, they looked pale and were indeed shaking. Her head hurt so much she felt like it had cracked open.

He put his arm around her and led her to the couch. ‘I’ll be right back.’ He walked away and soon came back with a blanket. He wrapped it around her shoulders and sat down next to her. ‘That’ll help.’

‘Thanks,’ she said, although she didn’t believe that would help a lot, her shaking wasn’t from the cold.

‘How… how was it?’ He asked again.

‘Snape was an asshole.’

‘That’s not new.’ 

‘Harry shot a Stinging Hex at him. That was, without a doubt, the best part of the lesson,’ she said, tugging at the edges of the blanket and pulling it closer to her body, trying to stop herself from shaking.

‘Right, but how was it for you? I’ve heard Occlumency is really hard and-’

‘It brings back memories.’ She sighed, looking at the fire crackling. ‘It’s not pleasant.’

‘Did you manage to keep him out of your head?’ He asked, his eyes did not tear away from her, he felt like she was on the verge of passing out, but he would not tell her that.

‘Not yet. He gave me no chance to disarm him anyway.’

‘Would You-Know-Who give you a chance to disarm him?’

‘I suppose not.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘You know, I hate when you play the devil’s advocate, it’s irritating.’

‘Well, someone has to keep you from having unreasonable ideas,’ he said, nudging her arm playfully.

She slapped his hand away, but she couldn’t help but smile at him. ‘I’m not  _ that _ unreasonable.’

‘Yes, you are.’

‘Shut up.’ She pushed him to the side, but he put his arm around her and pulled her in, noticing her shaking had lessened. ‘Let me go,’ she whined, trying to wiggle herself free from his arm and the blanket wrapped around her.

‘No, you’ll stay there and you’ll rest now,’ he said, grinning broadly.

‘You can’t tell me what to do!’

‘True, but I can ask you nicely to calm down and rest.’

‘You didn’t ask nicely!’

‘Well, I am now. Can you  _ please _ calm your arse down and let yourself rest?’

She looked at him, pretending to be thinking about his request. ‘Fine.’ She leaned closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

They both stayed in silence, watching the fire, leaning up against each other. ‘Avalon?’ He said her name so gently it almost melted her to her core, she almost began shaking again, but for a different reason than she did before.

‘Yes?’ She looked up at him. She felt her heart beat a bit quicker than normal.

‘I know you don’t want to talk about the memories you saw back in that lesson,’ he began and she shot him a look of confusion, ‘I noticed you were trying to avoid the topic when I asked how it went, don’t deny it,’ he continued as she opened her mouth to protest but closed it again. ‘I understand you don’t feel like talking about it now, but whenever you want to open up… well, I’m here for you.’

‘Damn, when did you become so sensitive?’ She teased. She thought that was a good change of topic, a good way of not letting herself get emotional with him, she needed to keep her own barriers up.

‘Avalon, I’m serious.’ He frowned, he was clearly not messing around and she realized that.

She sighed. ‘I know you’ll be here, I’m just not ready to talk yet.’

‘I know.’ He gave her a small smile and pulled her back into his embrace. 


	13. UNRESOLVED

With so much to worry about and so much to do - startling amounts of homework that frequently kept the fifth-years working until past midnight, secret DA sessions and regular classes with Snape - January seemed to be passing alarmingly fast. Before Avalon knew it, February had arrived, bringing with it wetter and warmer weather and the prospect of the second Hogsmeade visit of the year. 

Avalon and Blaise’s relationship had been going steadily, although they did spend more time making out than they did talking, which didn’t necessarily please her.

On the morning of the fourteenth Hermione approached her during breakfast, before they went down to Hogsmeade.

‘Listen, Avalon,’ she said, looking at her, ‘this is really important. Do you think you could meet me in the Three Broomsticks around midday? I already talked to Harry and he has agreed to go.’

‘Why?’ She asked.

‘I haven’t got time to explain, I have to answer this quickly.’ She waved a letter in her hand. ‘But please, come, alright?’

‘Fine, I’ll be there,’ said Avalon and Hermione hurried out of the Great Hall.

Avalon finished her breakfast and went alone to the Entrance Hall. Blaise was waiting for her, leaning up against the wall, watching the other students walk by him.

‘Hi,’ she said, beaming, ‘let’s go?’

He nodded, grinning at her. He put his arm around his waist and they joined the queue of people being signed out by Filch. They walked in silence all the way to Hogsmeade. Avalon didn’t exactly mind the silence, but she still wished he’d say something, he was always so talkative, yet, he was always quiet around her.

‘Where do you want to go?’ She asked when they arrived at Hogsmeade. The High Street was full of students ambling up and down, peering into the shop windows and messing about together on the pavements.

‘I think we should just walk around, for now, then we could go get a Butterbeer.’ He shrugged, keeping his arm around her.

She nodded in agreement and they kept walking. They wandered towards Dervish and Banges. A large poster had been stuck up in the window and a few Hogsmeaders were looking at it. They moved aside when Blaise and Avalon approached and Avalon found herself staring once more at the pictures of the ten escaped Death Eaters. The poster, ‘By Order of the Ministry of Magic’, offered a thousand-Galleon reward to any witch or wizard with information leading to the recapture of any of the convicts pictured.

The ten escaped Death Eaters were staring out of every shop window they passed it became hard to ignore. It reminded her of when Sirius had escaped Azkaban, his face had been splattered on every window of every shop and there were Dementors everywhere, looking for him. Granted, she wasn’t sorry that there were no Dementors nearby, but she couldn’t help but notice that their absence was very odd. They had not only let the Death Eaters escape, but they also weren’t bothering to look for them… it looked as though they really were outside Ministry control now. She made a mental note to point that out to Nott later.

It started to rain as they passed Scrivenshaft’s; cold, heavy drops of water kept hitting her face and the back of her neck. ‘Crap,’ she muttered, ‘maybe we should go get that Butterbeer now.’

‘Right, yeah.’ He said, it was almost as if he hadn’t even noticed the rain.

They went to the Three Broomsticks, it was packed, as usual, but they managed to find an empty table at the very corner of the room. They sat down in front of each other and ordered their Butterbeers.

‘You seem upset,’ noted Avalon.

‘I do?’

‘Yeah, you haven’t talked much… actually, you’ve been rather quiet around me lately.’ She looked down at her hands, fiddling with her fingers. 

Blaise looked away, pressing his lips together. ‘I didn’t mean to,’ he said, truthfully, ‘but sometimes I just don’t know what to talk about.’

‘It’s weird, isn’t it? It used to be so easy when… when we were just friends.’

‘Yeah,’ he said quietly.

Madam Rosmerta soon came with their Butterbeers, she put them on the table and the couple thanked her. They drank their beers in silence, looking around at the other people in the pub.

Avalon thought that if Nott were here with her instead, they wouldn’t be sitting in silence. Or maybe they would, but it wouldn’t be as uncomfortable as it was now, then she quickly scolded herself for thinking of Nott while on a date with someone else. 

She was too lost in her own thoughts to notice Blaise was talking to her, she only snapped out of her trance when he waved his hand in front of her.

‘What did you say?’ She asked.

He drew in a deep breath, staring down at his beer. ‘I think we should break up,’ he blurted out.

‘Wait, what?’ She widened her eyes in surprise, afraid he, somehow, knew what she had been thinking.

‘I… I don’t think this is working… I mean  _ us.  _ I don’t think we work as a couple, we work better as friends. I don’t want to hurt you, you know I would never do that, but-’

‘I agree,’ she interrupted him, as she noticed he was getting nervous and had begun to overexplain the situation.

‘You do?’ He raised his eyebrows, he clearly did not expect her to react so well.

‘Yeah, besides I’ve had this feeling you don’t really like  _ me, _ do you?’

‘What?’ He asked. He only seemed to be getting more and more confused.

‘You like Olivia. I asked you if you did on our first date, you told me you didn’t like her, but I think you were just in denial.’ She shrugged. Their conversation didn’t hurt her, and she could tell it didn’t hurt him either.

‘How… how do you know that?’

‘I read your diary,’ she teased and he gave her an annoyed glance. ‘Because the same thing happened to me, I think,’ she said, truthfully.

‘Who-’

‘Doesn’t matter.’ She shook her head. She didn’t want to go into detail about how she had just gotten to a realization she should’ve gotten to ages ago. ‘But I think you should tell Olivia how you feel.’

‘Isn’t it too soon? I mean, we did just break up.’

‘Do you want it to be too late?’ 

‘I guess not.’ He grinned. ‘Thanks for being so… understanding.’

‘Yeah, just promise me we can still be friends.’

‘That’s why we broke up, isn’t it?’ 

‘I suppose. So, what do you say we finish these Butterbeers and go to Zonko’s? I heard they got some new stuff earlier this week.’

He beamed at her, he was relieved she wasn’t sad or angry at him, he was even more relieved everything seemed to be going back to normal. ‘Sounds like a plan.’

_ +++++ _

She went back to the Three Broomsticks around midday, just as Hermione told her to. Hermione was not alone, she was sitting at a table with the weirdest pair of drinking mates she could ever have imagined: Luna Lovegood, Harry and none other than Rita Skeeter, ex-journalist on the Daily Prophet and one of Hermione’s least favorite people in the world.

‘Hi, Avalon! We’ve been waiting for you,’ said Hermione, moving along to give room for Avalon to sit down. 

‘What the hell are you up to, Hermione?’ Avalon asked, sitting down next to her.

‘Little Miss Perfect was just about to tell me when you arrived,’ said Rita, taking a large slurp of her drink. ‘I suppose I’m allowed to talk to her, am I?’ she shot at Hermione.

‘Yes, I suppose you are,’ said Hermione coldly.

Unemployment did not suit Rita. The hair that had once been set in elaborate curls now hung lank and unkempt around her face. The scarlet paint on her two-inch talons was chipped and there were a couple of false jewels missing from her winged glasses. She took another great gulp of her drink and said out of the corner of her mouth, ‘Pretty girl, is she, Harry?’

‘What are you going on about?’ Questioned Avalon.

‘We were talking about your brother’s  _ friend,  _ Cho, just before you arrived,’ said Rita.

‘One more word about Harry’s love life and the deal’s off and that’s a promise,’ said Hermione irritably.

‘What deal?’ said Rita, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. ‘You haven’t mentioned a deal yet, Miss Prissy, you just told me to turn up. Oh, one of these days ...’ She took a deep shuddering breath.

‘Yes, yes, one of these days you’ll write more horrible stories about Harry and me,’ said Hermione indifferently. ‘Find someone who cares, why don’t you?’

‘They’ve run plenty of horrible stories about Harry and Avalon this year without my help,’ said Rita, shooting a sideways look at Harry and Avalon over the top of her glass and adding in a rough whisper, ‘How has that made you two feel? Betrayed? Distraught? Misunderstood?’

‘They feel angry, of course,’ said Hermione in a hard, clear voice. ‘Because they told the Minister for Magic the truth and the Minister’s too much of an idiot to believe them.’

‘So you two actually stick to it, do you, that He Who Must Not Be Named is back?’ said Rita, lowering her glass and subjecting Harry and Avalon to a piercing stare while her finger strayed longingly to the clasp of the crocodile bag. ‘You stand by all this garbage Dumbledore’s been telling everybody about You-Know-Who returning and Harry being the sole witness?’

‘I wasn’t the sole witness,’ snarled Harry. ‘There were a dozen-odd Death Eaters there as well. Want their names?’

‘I’d love them,’ breathed Rita, now fumbling in her bag once more and gazing at him as though he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. ‘A great bold headline:  _ “Potter Accuses ...” _ A sub-heading,  _ “Harry Potter Names Death Eaters Still Among Us“ _ . And then, beneath a nice big photograph of you,  _ “Disturbed teenage survivor of You-Know-Who’s attack, Harry Potter, 15, and his sister, Avalon, caused outrage yesterday by accusing respectable and prominent members of the wizarding community of being Death Eaters ...” _ ’

The Quick-Quotes Quill was actually in her hand and halfway to her mouth when the rapturous expression on her face died.

‘But of course,’ she said, lowering the quill and looking daggers at Hermione, ‘Little Miss Perfect wouldn’t want that story out there, would she?’

‘As a matter of fact,’ said Hermione sweetly, ‘that’s exactly what Little Miss Perfect does want.’

Rita stared at her. So did Harry and Avalon. Luna, on the other hand, sang ‘Weasley is our King’ dreamily under her breath and stirred her drink with a cocktail onion on a stick.

‘You want me to report what they say about He Who Must Not Be Named?’ Rita asked Hermione in a hushed voice.

‘Yes, I do,’ said Hermione. ‘The true story. All the facts. Exactly as Harry reports them. He’ll give you all the details, he’ll tell you the names of the undiscovered Death Eaters he saw there, Avalon can tell you everything about the death eater working for him at Hogwarts last year, Harry will tell you what Voldemort looks like now - oh, get a grip on yourself,’ she added contemptuously, throwing a napkin across the table, for, at the sound of Voldemort’s name, Rita had jumped so badly she had slopped half her glass of Firewhisky down herself.

Rita blotted the front of her grubby raincoat, still staring at Hermione. Then she said baldly, ‘The Prophet wouldn’t print it. In case you haven’t noticed, nobody believes his cock-and-bull story. Everyone thinks they’re both delusional. Now, if you let me write the story from that angle -’

‘We don’t need another story about how Harry and Avalon lost their marbles!’ said Hermione angrily. ‘We’ve had plenty of those already, thank you! I want them given the opportunity to tell the truth!’

‘There’s no market for a story like that,’ said Rita coldly.

‘You mean the Prophet won’t print it because Fudge won’t let them,’ said Hermione irritably.

Rita gave Hermione a long, hard look. Then, leaning forwards across the table towards her, she said in a businesslike tone, ‘All right, Fudge is leaning on the Prophet, but it comes to the same thing. They won’t print a story that shows the Potters in a good light. Nobody wants to read it. It’s against the public mood. This last Azkaban breakout has got people quite worried enough. People just don’t want to believe You-Know-Who’s back.’

‘So the Daily Prophet exists to tell people what they want to hear, does it?’ said Hermione scathingly.

Rita sat up straight again, her eyebrows raised, and drained her glass of Firewhisky. Avalon secretly wished she could her some Firewhisky for herself, maybe it would make this whole conversation more bearable.

‘The Prophet exists to sell itself, you silly girl,’ she said coldly.

‘My dad thinks it’s an awful paper,’ said Luna, chipping into the conversation unexpectedly. Sucking on her cocktail onion, she gazed at Rita with her slightly mad eyes. ‘He publishes important stories he thinks the public needs to know. He doesn’t care about making money.’

Rita looked disparagingly at Luna. ‘I’m guessing your father runs some stupid little village newsletter?’ she said. ‘Probably, Twenty-five Ways to Mingle With Muggles and the dates of the next Bring and Fly Sale?’ 

‘No,’ said Luna, dipping her onion back into her Gillywater, ‘he’s the editor of The Quibbler.’

Rita snorted so loudly that people at a nearby table looked round in alarm.

‘“Important stories he thinks the public needs to know”, eh?’ she said witheringly. ‘I could manure my garden with the contents of that rag.’

‘Well, this is your chance to raise the tone of it a bit, isn’t it?’ said Hermione pleasantly. ‘Luna says her father’s quite happy to take Harry’s interview. That’s who’ll be publishing it.’ 

Rita stared at them both for a moment, then let out a great whoop of laughter.

‘The Quibbler!’ she said, cackling. ‘You think people will take him seriously if he’s published in The Quibbler?’

‘Some people won’t,’ said Hermione in a level voice. ‘But the Daily Prophet‘s version of the Azkaban breakout had some gaping holes in it. I think a lot of people will be wondering whether there isn’t a better explanation of what happened and if there’s an alternative story available, even if it is published in a -’ she glanced sideways at Luna, ‘in a - well, an unusual magazine - I think they might be rather keen to read it.’

Rita didn’t say anything for a while, but eyed Hermione shrewdly, her head a little to one side.

‘All right, let’s say for a moment I’ll do it,’ she said abruptly. ‘What kind of fee am I going to get?’

‘I don’t think Daddy exactly pays people to write for the magazine,’said Luna dreamily. ‘They do it because it’s an honor and, of course, to see their names in print.’

Rita Skeeter looked as though the taste of Stinksap was strong in her mouth again as she rounded on Hermione.

‘I’m supposed to do this for free?’

‘Well, yes,’ said Hermione calmly, taking a sip of her drink. ‘Otherwise, as you very well know, I will inform the authorities that you are an unregistered Animagus. Of course, the Prophet might give you rather a lot for an insider’s account of life in Azkaban.’

Rita looked as though she would have liked nothing better than to seize the paper umbrella sticking out of Hermione’s drink and thrust it up her nose.

‘I don’t suppose I’ve got any choice, have I?’ said Rita, her voice shaking slightly. She opened her crocodile bag once more, withdrew a piece of parchment, and raised her Quick-Quotes Quill.

‘Daddy will be pleased,’ said Luna brightly. A muscle twitched in Rita’s jaw.

‘OK, Harry? Avalon?’ said Hermione, turning to him. ‘Ready to tell the public the truth?’

‘I suppose,’ said Harry, watching Rita balancing the Quick-Quotes Quill at the ready on the parchment between them. Avalon raised her eyebrows but nodded in agreement.

‘Fire away, then, Rita,’ said Hermione serenely, fishing a cherry out from the bottom of her glass.

_ +++++ _

Avalon could not wait to see Umbridge’s face when she read Rita’s article, she knew she and Harry would probably get a hundred days worth of detention, but it would be worth it. Avalon wondered how everyone else would react, she knew some people would question their sanity, but she didn’t care, she knew there were others who would believe them.

She walked to her common room, she hoped she’d find Nott there, waiting for her to return. She knew it was stupid of her to think he’d be there for her while she was out having fun with someone else. 

She was lucky enough to find him sitting on one of the tables, writing his Transfiguration essay, his elbow propped up on the table and his chin on his hand, almost falling asleep on top of the parchment.

Avalon poked his shoulder, taking his attention away from his essay. ‘Hey,’ he said, smiling.

‘Do you want to go for a walk?’ 

‘I need to finish this,’ he said in an apologetic manner.

‘Please? I need to talk to you.’

‘Did something happen?’ His eyes flashed concern. He let down his quill and rolled up his parchment.

‘No… well, yes,’ she said and he frowned. ‘Will you please come with me?’

‘Yes, as long as you help me finish this essay later,’ said Nott, getting up.

‘You can just copy mine. Let’s go.’

She took him by the hand and lead him out of the common room, all the way to one of the corridors near the entrance to the Room of Requirement. ‘Why are we here?’ He asked, confused.

‘Because this place is usually empty around this time of the day and I thought we could use somewhere more private to talk.’ She shrugged. ‘There’s always people in the common room.’

‘Oh. We should’ve brought cushions then,’ he said and sat on the floor, resting his back against the wall.

She grinned and sat down next to him. She stared at the opposite wall, she didn’t know how to begin explaining what had happened, so she decided to begin at the less complicated part of her day. ‘Hermione made Rita Skeeter interview Harry and me.’

‘She did? How?’

‘She uh… she blackmailed Rita.’ 

Nott’s eyes widened as he looked at Avalon, waiting for a better explanation.

‘Last year Hermione found out Rita’s an unregistered animagus, so if she didn’t write the article Hermione would tell the authorities about it and Rita would get a one-way ticket to Azkaban.’

‘Where will she publish the article? The Daily Prophet would never do it, would they?’

‘Luna’s dad said he will be happy to publish it on his magazine, The Quibbler.’

‘Do you think anyone will take you guys seriously? I mean, The Quibbler is full of bullshit,’ he commented, he still wasn’t sure if this had been a good idea.

‘Some people won’t, but other people are looking for new answers, so it might work, and even if it doesn’t, at least we tried to get the truth out there.’ She shrugged. As much as she hoped for all of it to work, she knew it could also fail miserably.

‘Well, I hope it works, it will be nice to have fewer people calling you and your brother crazy,’ he grinned at her, but she kept looking at the wall.

‘Something else happened,’ she said, her expression was unreadable.

He furrowed his eyebrows, looking over at her.

‘Blaise and I broke up,’ confided Avalon. She crossed her legs and propped her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. ‘Our relationship just wasn’t working.’

‘Avalon, I… I’m sorry.’ He put his hand on her shoulder as an attempt to comfort her. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do to help, as much as he didn’t want to see her sad because of a breakup, he couldn’t help but feel slightly content with the news.

‘Don’t be, the breakup was mutual, we felt like we were better off as friends.’ she shrugged and rested her back against the wall again.

‘I thought you’d be sad because you liked him a lot, didn’t you?’

‘I don’t know, I think I was just confused… we both were, so we just jumped into a relationship so maybe we could figure our feelings out.’ 

_ So maybe we could forget the ones we really wanted to be with,  _ she thought.

‘Did you?’

‘What?’ She turned her head to him. Their faces were only inches apart.

‘Did you figure your feelings out?’ He asked, looking at her, hoping she’d say what he had always hoped to hear.

‘I… I’m not sure yet,’ she said in a soft, quiet tone. 

She was so close to telling him how she felt, how she had always felt and only now she had realized that, how she wanted them to be together, how he was the one who was always on her mind, every day, but she was so afraid of ruining their current friendship, afraid he didn’t feel the same for her and would not want to even look at her face anymore. He meant the world to her and she could not afford to ruin any of it.

So, she bit the words back.

_ +++++ _

Blaise went after Olivia right after he came back from Hogsmeade. His heart was beating fast in excitement and when he finally found her near the lake, the words almost fell right out of his mouth.

‘Olivia!’ He called, a smile splattered across his face. He was so close to finally admitting something he had held in for so long.

‘Oh, hi… I thought you were on a date with Avalon,’ she said, turning her back to the lake to face him.

‘Well, I was, but we broke up,’ he said, a bit breathlessly, as he had walked really fast, almost running, all the way to where he stood.

‘Why? I thought everything was going well,’ she said, there was a slightly bitter tone to her voice.

‘We just decided we were better off as friends. Anyway, this is not what I was going to tell you, I-’

‘My dad told me more about my mother,’ she interrupted, she hadn’t been paying much attention to what he was saying, she was too distracted by her own thoughts, she had been wanting to tell him about what happened during Christmas, but she had not been able to find the right time.

Blaise’s excitement died down. ‘What?’

‘He told me more about her, what she was like, what their relationship was like.’ A small smile crept its way into her face. She pulled the chain with the rings from under her shirt gently but did not take it off her neck. ‘He gave me their engagement rings.’

‘Oh… this is… this is great, Olivia, I’m happy for you.’ He managed to smile at her, he knew she had been dying to tell him that, so he figured that whatever she had to say was more important than what he was going to tell her.

‘Yeah… it was really nice of him,’ she said, looking at the rings. She then looked up at him again. ‘What were you going to say anyway?’

He stuffed his hands inside the pockets of his pants and shrugged. ‘Nothing important. How was the rest of your Christmas?’

Olivia began to explain how it was to finally spend some time with Sirius and Blaise did not interrupt her. He decided that, maybe, this wasn’t the right time to let her know how he felt about her.


	14. THE PHOENIX

If Umbridge could do one thing to make sure every single student in Hogwarts read the article, it was banning it, which is exactly what she did, after she prohibited Harry and Avalon from going to the next Hogsmeade trips.

Just as Avalon had predicted, some people still thought she and Harry were completely insane, but a surprisingly big amount of people believed and supported them. 

Nott had been weirdly quiet over the past few days. When Avalon asked what was wrong during breakfast, she realized she might have had screwed up.

‘My father sent me a letter a few days ago, he asked me if I had something to do with the article,’ he said, poking his food with his fork, but hardly eating anything.

‘Is he angry?’ She asked, her eyes widened in concern.

‘Couldn’t tell. I don’t really want to find out.’

‘I’m so sorry, Nott.’ She reached for his hand and intertwined her fingers with his. He smiled down at their hands as discreetly as he could.

‘It’s not your fault.’

‘It kind of is.’ She frowned. Maybe she should’ve told Harry not to mention Nott’s father.

‘It isn’t, I’m glad you and Harry told everyone the truth. Besides, it’s not like I’m seeing my father any time soon.’ He shrugged. 

She gave him a small smile and let go of his hand, feeling like she had spent way too much time holding it for it to be entirely plausible.

Her lessons with Snape had been getting steadily worse, after weeks of having her mind cracked open she was still no good at Occlumency and every lesson brought back memories she didn’t exactly want to see.

One day her lesson had to be postponed, she was about to celebrate, then she discovered the reason why it had been postponed. 

Professor Trelawney was standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall with her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other, looking utterly mad. She stared at something at the bottom of the stairs Avalon had to stand on her tip-toes to see, her short stature didn’t help her at all.

‘No!’ she shrieked. ‘NO! This cannot be happening ... it cannot ... I refuse to accept it!’

‘You didn’t realize this was coming?’ said a high girlish voice, sounding callously amused, and Avalon, moving slightly to her right, in the middle of a bunch of students, saw that Trelawney’s terrifying vision was nothing other than Professor Umbridge. ‘Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow’s weather, you must surely have realized that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable that you would be sacked?’

‘You c - can’t!’ howled Professor Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, ‘you c - can’t sack me! I’ve b - been here sixteen years! H - Hogwarts is m - my h- home!’

‘It was your home,’ said Professor Umbridge, and Avalon was revolted to see the enjoyment stretching her toadlike face as she watched Professor Trelawney sink, sobbing uncontrollably, on to one of her trunks, ‘until an hour ago, when the Minister for Magic countersigned your Order of Dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this Hall. You are embarrassing us.’

Then she heard footsteps. Professor McGonagall had broken away from the spectators, marched straight up to Professor Trelawney and was patting her firmly on the back while withdrawing a large handkerchief from within her robes.

‘There, there, Sybill ... calm down ... blow your nose on this ... it’s not as bad as you think, now ... you are not going to have to leave Hogwarts ...’

‘Oh really, Professor McGonagall?’ said Umbridge in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forward. ‘And your authority for that statement is ... ?’

‘That would be mine,’ said a deep voice. 

The oaken front doors had swung open. Students beside them scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore appeared in the entrance. Leaving the doors wide open behind him he strode forwards through the circle of onlookers towards Professor Trelawney, tear-stained and trembling, on her trunk, Professor McGonagall alongside her.

‘Yours, Professor Dumbledore?’ said Umbridge, with a singularly unpleasant little laugh. ‘I’m afraid you do not understand the position. I have here -’ she pulled a parchment scroll from within her robes ‘- an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister for Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation and sack any teacher she - that is to say, I - feel is not performing to the standards required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her.’

‘You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor, you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid,’ he went on, with a courteous little bow, ‘that the power to do that still resides with the Headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts.’ 

At this, Professor Trelawney gave a wild little laugh in which a hiccough was barely hidden.

‘No - no, I’ll g - go, Dumbledore! I sh- shall - leave Hogwarts and s - seek my fortune elsewhere -’

‘No,’ said Dumbledore sharply. ‘It is my wish that you remain, Sybill.’

He turned to Professor McGonagall.

‘Might I ask you to escort Sybill back upstairs, Professor McGonagall?’

‘Of course,’ said McGonagall. ‘Up you get, Sybill ...’

Professor Sprout came hurrying forwards out of the crowd and grabbed Professor Trelawney’s other arm. Together, they guided her past Umbridge and up the marble stairs. Professor Flitwick went scurrying after them, his wand held out before him; he squeaked ‘Locomotor trunks!‘ and Professor Trelawney’s luggage rose into the air and proceeded up the staircase after her, Professor Flitwick bringing up the rear. Professor Umbridge was standing stock-still, staring at Dumbledore, who continued to smile benignly.

‘And what,’ she said, in a tone that carried all around the Entrance Hall, ‘are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?’

‘Oh, that won’t be a problem,’ said Dumbledore pleasantly. ‘You see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor.’

‘You’ve found -?’ said Umbridge shrilly. ‘ _ You’ve _ found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Number Twenty-two -’

‘The Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if - and only if - the Headmaster is unable to find one,’ said Dumbledore. ‘And I am happy to say that on this occasion I have succeeded. May I introduce you?’

He turned to face the open front doors, through which night mist was now drifting. Avalon heard hooves. There was a shocked murmur around the Hall and those nearest the doors hastily moved even further backwards, some of them tripping over in their haste to clear a path for the newcomer.

‘This is Firenze,’ said Dumbledore happily to a thunderstruck Umbridge. ‘I think you’ll find him suitable.’

_ +++++ _

As a dull March blurred into a squally April, Avalon’s life seemed to have become one long series of worries and problems again.

The O.W.L.s were drawing nearer, all the fifth-years were suffering from stress to some degree, but Hannah Abbott became the first to receive a Calming Draught from Madam Pomfrey after she burst into tears during Herbology and sobbed that she was too stupid to take exams and wanted to leave school now.

They had finally started work on Patronuses during their DA meetings, which everybody had been very keen to practice, though, as Harry and Avalon kept reminding them, producing a Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not under threat was very different from producing it when confronted by something like a Dementor.

‘Oh, don’t be such a killjoy,’ said Cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped Patronus soar around the Room of Requirement during their last lesson before Easter. ‘They’re so pretty!’

‘They’re not supposed to be pretty, they’re supposed to protect you,’ said Avalon impatiently, although she did enjoy watching her dragon Patronus roam the room earlier, it was easy to appreciate them when there was no danger involved.

‘What we really need is a Boggart or something; that’s how I learned, I had to conjure a Patronus while the Boggart was pretending to be a Dementor -’ Harry began.

‘But that would be really scary!’ said Lavender, who was shooting puffs of silver vapor out of the end of her wand. ‘And I still - can’t - do it!’ she added angrily.

Neville was having trouble, too. His face was screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issued from his wand-tip.

‘You’ve got to think of something happy,’ Harry reminded him.

‘I’m trying,’ said Neville miserably, who was trying so hard his round face was actually shining with sweat.

‘Harry, Avalon, I think I’m doing it!’ yelled Seamus, who had been brought along to his first ever DA meeting by Dean. ‘Look - ah - it’s gone ... but it was definitely something hairy!’

The door of the Room of Requirement opened and closed. It took a while for Avalon to realize there was something tugging at Harry’s robes.

‘Hi, Dobby!’ Harry said. ‘What are you - What’s wrong?’

The elf’s eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. The members of the DA closest to Harry and Avalon had fallen silent; everybody in the room was watching Dobby. 

‘Harry Potter, sir...’ squeaked the elf, trembling from head to foot, ‘Harry Potter, sir... Dobby has come to warn you... but the house-elves have been warned not to tell...’

He ran head-first at the wall. Harry, who had some experience of Dobby’s habits of self-punishment, made to seize him, but Dobby merely bounced off the stone, cushioned by his eight hats.

‘What’s happened, Dobby?’ Harry asked, grabbing the elf’s tiny arm and holding him away from anything with which he might seek to hurt himself.

‘Harry Potter ... she ... she ...’

Dobby hit himself hard on the nose with his free fist. Harry seized that, too.

‘Who’s “she”, Dobby?’

‘Umbridge,’ Avalon guessed through her gritted teeth.

Dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head on Harry’s knees. Harry held him at arm’s length.

‘What about her? Dobby - she hasn’t found out about this - about us - about the DA?’

He read the answer in the elf’s stricken face. His hands held fast by Harry, Dobby tried to kick himself and sank to his knees.

‘Is she coming?’ Harry asked quietly. 

Dobby let out a howl.

‘Yes, Harry Potter, yes!’

Harry straightened up, exchanging glances with Avalon, and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf.

‘WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?’ Harry bellowed. ‘RUN!’

They all pelted towards the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door, then people burst through. Avalon hoped they wouldn’t be dumb enough to go straight to their dormitories.

‘Harry, Avalon, come on!’ shrieked Hermione from the center of the knot of people now fighting to get out.

He scooped up Dobby, who was still attempting to do himself serious injury and ran with the elf in his arms to join the back of the queue.

‘Dobby - this is an order - get back down to the kitchen with the other elves and, if she asks you whether you warned me, lie and say no!’ said Harry. ‘And I forbid you to hurt yourself!’ he added, dropping the elf as he made it over the threshold, at last, followed by his sister, and slammed the door behind him.

‘Thank you, Harry Potter!’ The elf squeaked and streaked off. Harry and Avalon glanced at each other and ran off to different sides. 

While Harry ran something caught him around the ankles and he fell spectacularly, skidding along on his front for six feet before coming to a halt. Someone behind him was laughing. He rolled over onto his back and saw Malfoy concealed in a niche beneath an ugly dragon-shaped vase.

‘Trip Jinx, Potter!’ he said. ‘Hey, Professor - PROFESSOR! I’ve got one!’ Umbridge came bustling round the far corner, breathless but wearing a delighted smile.

‘It’s him!’ she said jubilantly at the sight of Harry on the floor. ‘Excellent, Draco, excellent, oh, very good - fifty points to Slytherin! I’ll take him from here... stand up, Potter!’

Harry got to his feet, glaring at the pair of them. He had never seen Umbridge looking so happy. She seized his arm in a vice-like grip and turned, beaming broadly, to Malfoy.

‘You hop along and see if you can round up any more of them, Draco, preferably his sister too,’ she said. ‘Tell the others to look in the library - anybody out of breath - check the bathrooms, Miss Parkinson can do the girls’ ones - off you go - and you,’ she added in her softest, most dangerous voice, as Malfoy walked away, ‘you can come with me to the Headmaster’s office, Potter.’

They were at the stone gargoyle within minutes. ‘Fizzing Whizzbee,’ sang Umbridge; the stone gargoyle jumped aside, the wall behind split open, and they ascended the moving stone staircase. They reached the polished door with the griffin knocker, but Umbridge did not bother to knock, she strode straight inside, still holding tight to Harry.

The office was full of people. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, his expression serene, the tips of his long fingers together. Professor McGonagall stood rigidly beside him, her face extremely tense. Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, was rocking backwards and forwards on his toes beside the fire, apparently immensely pleased with the situation; Kingsley Shacklebolt and a tough-looking wizard with very short wiry hair whom Harry did not recognize, were positioned either side of the door like guards, and the freckled, bespectacled form of Percy Weasley hovered excitedly beside the wall, a quill and a heavy scroll of parchment in his hands, apparently poised to take notes.

The portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses were not pretending to be asleep tonight. All of them were alert and serious, watching what was happening below them. As Harry entered, a few flitted into neighboring frames and whispered urgently into their neighbor’s ear. Harry pulled himself free of Umbridge’s grasp as the door swung shut behind them. Cornelius Fudge was glaring at him with a kind of vicious satisfaction on his face.

‘Well,’ he said. ‘Well, well, well ...’

Harry replied with the dirtiest look he could muster.

‘He was heading back to Gryffindor Tower,’ said Umbridge. There was an indecent excitement in her voice, the same callous pleasure Harry had heard as she watched Professor Trelawney dissolving with misery in the Entrance Hall. ‘The Malfoy boy cornered him.’

‘Did he, did he?’ said Fudge appreciatively. ‘I must remember to tell Lucius. Well, Potter ... I expect you know why-’

The door burst open, interrupting Fudge. Avalon came in, Crabbe and Goyle held her tightly by both of her arms as she thrashed furiously against them, kicking and elbowing any piece of their body she could reach.

‘Let go of me, you bloody cowards!’ She raged as she managed to set one of her arms free and elbowed Crabbe on the eye.

‘We found her running to the Common Room,’ said Goyle as Crabbe put a hand over his eye and groaned in pain.

‘Well done,’ said Umbridge, beaming, ‘fifty points to Slytherin. Off you go, now!’

Goyle let go of Avalon’s arm and left the office with Crabbe. She glanced around the room, finally noticing who was there. She straightened up, fixing her hair and her robes as if nothing had happened, she then stared up at the Minister with a presumptuous look on her face. ‘Oh, well, hello, Minister,’ she said.

‘As I was saying,’ began Fudge, ignoring Avalon’s mockery, ‘I expect you know why you two are here.’

Avalon decided to play dumb, she would not be the one to admit what they were doing and get them into even more trouble. ‘No, sir,’ she said in a fake sweet voice. It was weird, since she had just elbowed someone in the eye.

‘I beg your pardon?’ said Fudge.

‘No,’ said Harry, firmly, backing Avalon up.

‘You don’t know why you are here?’

‘No, we don’t,’ said Avalon.

Fudge looked incredulously from Harry and Avalon to Professor Umbridge. Harry took advantage of his momentary inattention to steal another quick look at Dumbledore, who gave the carpet the tiniest of nods and the shadow of a wink.

‘So you two have no idea,’ said Fudge, in a voice positively sagging with sarcasm, ‘why Professor Umbridge has brought you to this office? You are not aware that you have broken any school rules?’

‘School rules?’ said Harry. ‘No.’

‘Or Ministry Decrees?’ amended Fudge angrily.

‘Not that we’re aware of,’ said Avalon blandly.

Avalon almost felt like smiling when she watched Fudge’s face go red with anger.

‘So, it’s news to you, is it,’ said Fudge, his voice now thick with anger, ‘that an illegal student organization has been discovered within this school?’

‘Yes, it is,’ said Harry, hoisting an unconvincing look of innocent surprise on to his face.

‘I think, Minister,’ said Umbridge silkily from beside him, ‘we might make better progress if I fetch our informant.’

‘Yes, yes, do,’ said Fudge, nodding, and he glanced maliciously at Dumbledore as Umbridge left the room. ‘There’s nothing like a good witness, is there, Dumbledore?’

‘Nothing at all, Cornelius,’ said Dumbledore gravely, inclining his head.

There was a wait of several minutes, in which nobody looked at each other, then Avalon heard the door open behind her. Umbridge moved past him into the room, gripping by the shoulder Cho’s curly-haired friend, Marietta, who was hiding her face in her hands.

‘Don’t be scared, dear, don’t be frightened,’ said Professor Umbridge softly, patting her on the back, ‘it’s quite alright, now. You have done the right thing. The Minister is very pleased with you. He’ll be telling your mother what a good girl you’ve been. Marietta’s mother, Minister,’ she added, looking up at Fudge, ‘is Madam Edgecombe from the Department of Magical Transportation, Floo Network office - she’s been helping us police the Hogwarts fires, you know.’

‘Jolly good, jolly good!’ said Fudge heartily. ‘Like mother, like daughter, eh? Well, come on, now, dear, look up, don’t be shy, let’s hear what you’ve got to- galloping gargoyles!’

As Marietta raised her head, Fudge leapt backwards in shock, nearly landing himself in the fire. He cursed, and stamped on the hem of his cloak which had started to smoke. Marietta gave a wail and pulled the neck of her robes right up to her eyes, but not before everyone had seen that her face was horribly disfigured by a series of close-set purple pustules that had spread across her nose and cheeks to form the word ‘SNEAK’.

‘Never mind the spots now, dear,’ said Umbridge impatiently, ‘just take your robes away from your mouth and tell the Minister -‘

But Marietta gave another muffled wail and shook her head frantically.

‘Oh, very well, you silly girl, I’ll tell him,’ snapped Umbridge. She hitched her sickly smile back on to her face and said, ‘Well, Minister, Miss Edgecombe here came to my office shortly after dinner this evening and told me she had something she wanted to tell me. She said that if I proceeded to a secret room on the seventh floor, sometimes known as the Room of Requirement, I would find out something to my advantage. I questioned her a little further and she admitted that there was to be some kind of meeting there. Unfortunately, at that point this hex,’ she waved impatiently at Marietta’s concealed face, ‘came into operation and upon catching sight of her face in my mirror the girl became too distressed to tell me any more.’

‘Well, now,’ said Fudge, fixing Marietta with what he evidently imagined was a kind and fatherly look, ‘it is very brave of you, my dear, coming to tell Professor Umbridge. You did exactly the right thing. Now, will you tell me what happened at this meeting? What was its purpose? Who was there?’

But Marietta would not speak; she merely shook her head again, her eyes wide and fearful.

‘Haven’t we got a counter-jinx for this?’ Fudge asked Umbridge impatiently, gesturing at Marietta’s face. ‘So she can speak freely?’

‘I have not yet managed to find one,’ Umbridge admitted grudgingly. Avalon almost smiled again and reminded herself to thank Hermione for that jinx later, that was if she was not expelled before she left that office. ‘But it doesn’t matter if she won’t speak, I can take up the story from here.’

‘You will remember, Minister, that I sent you a report back in October that the Potters had met a number of fellow students in the Hog’s Head in Hogsmeade -’

‘And what is your evidence for that?’ cut in Professor McGonagall.

‘I have testimony from Willy Widdershins, Minerva, who happened to be in the bar at the time. He was heavily bandaged, it is true, but his hearing was quite unimpaired,’ said Umbridge smugly. ‘He heard every word the Potters said and hastened straight to the school to report to me -’

‘Oh, so that’s why he wasn’t prosecuted for setting up all those regurgitating toilets!’ said Professor McGonagall, raising her eyebrows. ‘What an interesting insight into our justice system!’

‘Blatant corruption!’ roared the portrait of the corpulent, red-nosed wizard on the wall behind Dumbledore’s desk. ‘The Ministry did not cut deals with petty criminals in my day, no sir, they did not!’

‘Thank you, Fortescue, that will do,’ said Dumbledore softly.

‘The purpose of Potter’s meeting with these students,’ continued Professor Umbridge, ‘was to persuade them to join an illegal society, whose aim was to learn spells and curses the Ministry has decided are inappropriate for school-age-’

‘I think you’ll find you’re wrong there, Dolores,’ said Dumbledore quietly, peering at her over the half-moon spectacles perched halfway down his crooked nose.

‘Oho!’ said Fudge, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet again. ‘Yes, let’s hear the latest cock-and-bull story designed to pull the Potters out of trouble! Go on, then, Dumbledore, go on - Willy Widdershins was lying, was he? Or was it Potter’s identical twin in the Hog’s Head that day? Or is there the usual simple explanation involving a reversal of time, a dead man coming back to life and a couple of invisible Dementors?’

Percy Weasley let out a hearty laugh.

‘Oh, very good, Minister, very good!’

Avalon wished she could elbow him in the eye too, that’d teach him a thing or two. Then she saw, to her astonishment, that Dumbledore was smiling gently, too.

‘Cornelius, I do not deny - and nor, I am sure, do Harry and Avalon - that they were in the Hog’s Head that day, nor that they were trying to recruit students to a Defence Against the Dark Arts group. I am merely pointing out that Dolores is quite wrong to suggest that such a group was, at that time, illegal. If you remember, the Ministry Decree banning all student societies was not put into effect until two days after their Hogsmeade meeting, so they were not breaking any rules at all in the Hog’s Head.’

Percy looked as though he had been struck in the face by something very heavy. Fudge remained motionless in mid-bounce, his mouth hanging open. Umbridge recovered first.

‘That’s all very fine, Headmaster,’ she said, smiling sweetly, ‘but we are now nearly six months on from the introduction of Educational Decree Number Twenty-four. If the first meeting was not illegal, all those that have happened since most certainly are.’

‘Well,’ said Dumbledore, surveying her with polite interest over the top of his interlocked fingers, ‘they certainly would be, if they had continued after the Decree came into effect. Do you have any evidence that any such meetings continued?’

‘Evidence?’ repeated Umbridge, with that horrible wide toad-like smile. ‘Have you not been listening, Dumbledore? Why do you think Miss Edgecombe is here?’

‘Oh, can she tell us about six months’ worth of meetings?’ said Dumbledore, raising his eyebrows. ‘I was under the impression that she was merely reporting a meeting tonight.’

‘Miss Edgecombe,’ said Umbridge at once, ‘tell us how long these meetings have been going on, dear. You can simply nod or shake your head, I’m sure that won’t make the spots worse. Have they been happening regularly over the last six months?’

‘Just nod or shake your head, dear,’ Umbridge said coaxingly to Marietta, ‘come on, now, that won’t re-activate the jinx.’

Everyone in the room was gazing at the top of Marietta’s face. Only her eyes were visible between the pulled-up robes and her curly fringe. Perhaps it was a trick of the firelight, but her eyes looked oddly blank. And then - to Avalon’s utter amazement - Marietta shook her head.

Umbridge looked quickly at Fudge, then back at Marietta.

‘I don’t think you understood the question, did you, dear? I’m asking whether you’ve been going to these meetings for the past six months? You have, haven’t you?’

Again, Marietta shook her head.

‘What do you mean by shaking your head, dear?’ said Umbridge in a testy voice.

‘I would have thought her meaning was quite clear,’ said Professor McGonagall harshly, ‘there have been no secret meetings for the past six months. Is that correct, Miss Edgecombe?’

Marietta nodded.

‘But there was a meeting tonight!’ said Umbridge furiously. ‘There was a meeting, Miss Edgecombe, you told me about it, in the Room of Requirement! And the Potters were the leaders, the Potters organized it, they - why are you shaking your head, girl?’

‘Well, usually when a person shakes their head,’ said McGonagall coldly, ‘they mean “no”. So unless Miss Edgecombe is using a form of sign language as yet unknown to humans -’

Professor Umbridge seized Marietta, pulled her round to face her and began shaking her very hard. A split second later Dumbledore was on his feet, his wand raised; Kingsley started forwards and Umbridge leapt back from Marietta, waving her hands in the air as though they had been burned.

‘I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores,’ said Dumbledore and, for the first time, he looked angry.

‘You want to calm yourself, Madam Umbridge,’ said Kingsley, in his deep, slow voice. ‘You don’t want to get yourself into trouble, now.’

‘No,’ said Umbridge breathlessly, glancing up at the towering figure of Kingsley. ‘I mean, yes - you’re right, Shacklebolt - I - I forgot myself.’

Marietta was standing exactly where Umbridge had released her. She seemed neither perturbed by Umbridge’s sudden attack, nor relieved by her release; she was still clutching her robe up to her oddly blank eyes and staring straight ahead of her.

‘Dolores,’ said Fudge, with the air of trying to settle something once and for all, ‘the meeting tonight - the one we know definitely happened -’

‘Yes,’ said Umbridge, pulling herself together, ‘yes ... well, Miss Edgecombe tipped me off and I proceeded at once to the seventh floor, accompanied by certain trustworthy students, so as to catch those in the meeting red-handed. It appears that they were forewarned of my arrival, however, because when we reached the seventh floor they were running in every direction. It does not matter, however. I have all their names here, Miss Parkinson ran into the Room of Requirement for me to see if they had left anything behind. We needed evidence and the room provided.’

And to Avalon’s horror, she withdrew from her pocket the list of names that had been pinned upon the Room of Requirement’s wall and handed it to Fudge.

‘The moment I saw Potters’ name on the list, I knew what we were dealing with,’ she said softly.

‘Excellent,’ said Fudge, a smile spreading across his face, ‘excellent, Dolores. And... by thunder...’

He looked up at Dumbledore, who was still standing beside Marietta, his wand held loosely in his hand.

‘See what they’ve named themselves?’ said Fudge quietly. ‘ _ Dumbledore’s Army _ .’

Dumbledore reached out and took the piece of parchment from Fudge. He gazed at the heading scribbled by Hermione months before and for a moment seemed unable to speak. Then he looked up, smiling.

‘Well, the game is up,’ he said simply. ‘Would you like a written confession from me, Cornelius - or will a statement before these witnesses suffice?’

Avalon saw McGonagall and Kingsley look at each other. There was fear in both faces. She did not understand what was going on, and nor, apparently, did Fudge.

‘Statement?’ said Fudge slowly. ‘What - I don’t -?’

‘Dumbledore’s Army, Cornelius,’ said Dumbledore, still smiling as he waved the list of names before Fudge’s face. ‘Not the Potters’ Army.  _ Dumbledore’s Army _ .’

‘But - but -‘

Understanding blazed suddenly in Fudge’s face. He took a horrified step backwards, yelped, and jumped out of the fire again.

‘You?’ he whispered, stamping again on his smoldering cloak.

‘That’s right,’ said Dumbledore pleasantly.

‘You organized this?’

‘I did,’ said Dumbledore.

‘You recruited these students for - for your army?’

‘Tonight was supposed to be the first meeting,’ said Dumbledore, nodding. ‘Merely to see whether they would be interested in joining me. I see now that it was a mistake to invite Miss Edgecombe, of course.’

Marietta nodded. Fudge looked from her to Dumbledore, his chest swelling.

‘Then you have been plotting against me!’ he yelled.

‘That’s right,’ said Dumbledore cheerfully.

‘NO!’ shouted Harry.

Kingsley flashed a look of warning at him, McGonagall widened her eyes threateningly, Avalon pulled him back to where he once stood by the collar of his robes. She knew what Dumbledore was about to do, and she didn’t like it, but she knew there was nothing they could do now without making the situation even worse.

‘No - Professor Dumbledore -!’

‘Be quiet, Harry, or I am afraid you will have to leave my office,’ said Dumbledore calmly as Avalon kept a firm grip on Harry’s collar.

‘Yes, shut up, Potter!’ barked Fudge, who was still ogling Dumbledore with a kind of horrified delight. ‘Well, well, well - I came here tonight expecting to expel the Potters and instead -’

‘Instead you get to arrest me,’ said Dumbledore, smiling. ‘It’s like losing a Knut and finding a Galleon, isn’t it?’

‘Weasley!’ cried Fudge, now positively quivering with delight, ‘Weasley, have you written it all down, everything he’s said, his confession, have you got it?’

‘Yes, sir, I think so, sir!’ said Percy eagerly, whose nose was splattered with ink from the speed of his note-taking.

‘The bit about how he’s been trying to build up an army against the Ministry, how he’s been working to destabilize me?’

‘Yes, sir, I’ve got it, yes!’ said Percy, scanning his notes joyfully.

‘Very well, then,’ said Fudge, now radiant with glee, ‘duplicate your notes, Weasley, and send a copy to the Daily Prophet at once. If we send a fast owl we should make the morning edition!’ Percy dashed from the room, slamming the door behind him, and Fudge turned back to Dumbledore. ‘You will now be escorted back to the Ministry, where you will be formally charged, then sent to Azkaban to await trial!’

‘Ah,’ said Dumbledore gently, ‘yes. Yes, I thought we might hit that little snag.’

‘Snag?’ said Fudge, his voice still vibrating with joy. ‘I see no snag, Dumbledore!’

‘Well,’ said Dumbledore apologetically, ‘I’m afraid I do.’

‘Oh, really?’

‘Well - it’s just that you seem to be laboring under the delusion that I am going to - what is the phrase? - come quietly. I am afraid I am not going to come quietly at all, Cornelius. I have absolutely no intention of being sent to Azkaban. I could break out, of course - but what a waste of time, and frankly, I can think of a whole host of things I would rather be doing.’

Umbridge’s face was growing steadily redder; she looked as though she was being filled with boiling water. Fudge stared at Dumbledore with a very silly expression on his face, as though he had just been stunned by a sudden blow and could not quite believe it had happened. He made a small choking noise, then looked round at Kingsley and the man with short grey hair, who alone of everyone in the room had remained entirely silent so far. The latter gave Fudge a reassuring nod and moved forwards a little, away from the wall. Avalon saw his hand drift, almost casually, towards his pocket.

‘Don’t be silly, Dawlish,’ said Dumbledore kindly. ‘I’m sure you are an excellent Auror - I seem to remember that you achieved “Outstanding” in all your N.E.W.T.s - but if you attempt to - er - bring me in by force, I will have to hurt you.’

The man called Dawlish blinked rather foolishly. He looked towards Fudge again, but this time seemed to be hoping for a clue as to what to do next.

‘So,’ sneered Fudge, recovering himself, ‘you intend to take on Dawlish, Shacklebolt, Dolores and myself single-handed, do you, Dumbledore?’

‘Merlin’s beard, no,’ said Dumbledore, smiling, ‘not unless you are foolish enough to force me to.’

‘He will not be single-handed!’ said Professor McGonagall loudly, plunging her hand inside her robes.

‘Oh yes he will, Minerva!’ said Dumbledore sharply. ‘Hogwarts needs you!’

‘Enough of this rubbish!’ said Fudge, pulling out his own wand. ‘Dawlish! Shacklebolt! Take him!’

A streak of silver light flashed around the room; there was a bang like a gunshot and the floor trembled; a hand grabbed the scruff of Avalon’s neck and forced her down on the floor as a second silver flash went off; several of the portraits yelled, Fawkes screeched and a cloud of dust filled the air. Coughing in the dust, Avalon saw a dark figure fall to the ground with a crash in front of her; there was a shriek and a thud and somebody cried, ‘No!’; then there was the sound of breaking glass, frantically scuffling footsteps, a groan... and silence.

Professor McGonagall was crouched beside her; she had forced her, Harry and Marietta out of harm’s way. Dust was still floating gently down through the air on to them. Panting slightly, Avalon saw a very tall figure moving towards them.

‘Are you all right?’ Dumbledore asked.

‘Yes!’ said Professor McGonagall, getting up and dragging Harry, Avalon, and Marietta with her.

The dust was clearing. The wreckage of the office loomed into view: Dumbledore’s desk had been overturned, all of the spindly tables had been knocked to the floor, their silver instruments in pieces. Fudge, Umbridge, Kingsley, and Dawlish lay motionless on the floor. Fawkes the phoenix soared in wide circles above them, singing softly.

‘Unfortunately, I had to hex Kingsley too, or it would have looked very suspicious,’ said Dumbledore in a low voice. ‘He was remarkably quick on the uptake, modifying Miss Edgecombe’s memory like that while everyone was looking the other way- thank him, for me, won’t you, Minerva?

‘Now, they will all awake very soon and it will be best if they do not know that we had time to communicate - you must act as though no time has passed, as though they were merely knocked to the ground, they will not remember -’

‘Where will you go, Dumbledore?’ whispered Professor McGonagall. ‘Grimmauld Place?’

‘Oh no,’ said Dumbledore, with a grim smile, ‘I am not leaving to go into hiding. Fudge will soon wish he’d never dislodged me from Hogwarts, I promise you.’

He then turned to Harry and Avalon.

‘Listen to me, Harry, Avalon,’ he said urgently. ‘You two must study Occlumency as hard as you can, do you understand me? Do everything Professor Snape tells you and practice it particularly every night before sleeping so that you can close your minds to bad dreams - you will understand why soon enough, but you two must promise me -‘

The man called Dawlish was stirring. Dumbledore seized both Harry’s and Avalon’s wrists, one in each hand.

‘Remember - close your minds - you will understand.’ whispered Dumbledore.

Fawkes circled the office and swooped low over him. Dumbledore released them, raised his hand and grasped the phoenix’s long golden tail. There was a flash of fire and the pair of them were gone.

‘Where is he?’ yelled Fudge, pushing himself up from the floor. ‘Where is he?’

‘I don’t know!’ shouted Kingsley, also leaping to his feet.

‘Well, he can’t have Disapparated!’ cried Umbridge. ‘You can’t do it from inside this school -’

‘The stairs!’ cried Dawlish, and he flung himself upon the door, wrenched it open and disappeared, followed closely by Kingsley and Umbridge. Fudge hesitated, then got slowly to his feet, brushing the dust from his front. There was a long and painful silence.

‘Well, Minerva,’ said Fudge nastily, straightening his torn shirtsleeve, ‘I’m afraid this is the end of your friend Dumbledore.’

‘You think so, do you?’ said Professor McGonagall scornfully.

Fudge seemed not to hear her. He was looking around at the wrecked office. A few of the portraits hissed at him; one or two even made rude hand gestures.

‘You’d better get those three off to bed,’ said Fudge, looking back at Professor McGonagall with a dismissive nod towards Harry, Avalon, and Marietta.

Professor McGonagall said nothing, but marched Harry, Avalon, and Marietta to the door. As it swung closed behind them, Avalon heard Phineas Nigellus’s voice.

‘You know, Minister, I disagree with Dumbledore on many counts... but you cannot deny he’s got style...’

_ +++++ _

When Avalon finally reached the Slytherin Common Room, Blaise and Nott were waiting for her with anxious looks on their faces, pacing around the room.

‘Are you okay? Did you get expelled?’ Asked Blaise.

She shook her head, slumping onto the couch with a sigh and rubbing her eyes.

‘Draco was bragging because, apparently, he caught Herry-’

‘He did,’ confirmed Avalon.

‘Crabbe and Goyle said they caught you, but we didn’t believe them because Crabbe had a really bad bruise on his eye, so we assumed he tripped and hit his eye on a table or something,’ Blaise explained.

‘I elbowed him in the eye.’

‘You did what now?’ Asked Nott, slightly amused.

‘Is that really the point of our conversation?’ She said, raising her eyebrows. She shook her head and rested her head against the couch, staring up at the ceiling. ‘Marietta ratted us out to Umbridge.’

‘Marietta? Who’s that?’

‘Cho’s friend. Kingsley altered her memories though, when Fudge asked her if there had been any meeting she just shook her head.’

‘Fudge was there?’ Questioned Blaise, sitting on one of the armchairs near the couch Avalon and Nott were sitting on. Avalon silently thanked it was late at night, so there were no other students there besides them.

‘Yes, he was ready to expel Harry and I, Umbridge even had that paper where we all signed out names,’ Avalon went on, ‘but since we wrote  _ Dumbledore’s Army  _ on it, Dumbledore decided to take the blame.’

‘How… did he get away?’ Asked Nott.

‘He distracted Fudge and the others and Fawkes helped him flee.’ Avalon sighed and leaned forward, putting her hands over her face. ‘I wish we could’ve done something.’

Nott almost scoffed. ‘Don’t be an idiot, Avalon. It’s a miracle you weren’t expelled, considering all the factors,  _ this  _ is the best case scenario.’

‘Yeah, but now we’re left with Umbridge in charge,’ said Blaise.

‘For now, sure, but I don’t think Dumbledore can be kept away for long.’

‘Sometimes I wish I had your positivity,’ said Avalon. She took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet. ‘I’m off to bed, it’s been a long day. Goodnight, you two.’

She went up to the girls’ dormitory and changed into her pyjamas. She laid down on her bed, staring up at her bedpost, too agitated to sleep. Her heart still hammered against her chest as she remembered Dumbledore’s warning, telling her to learn Occlumency. So, she did as he told her and tried her best to focus and close her mind, hoping she wouldn’t dream about the corridor or anything of the sort that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry this is so   
> much like the book, i  
> didn't want to change it   
> and end up taking  
> important parts of  
> the story away.  
> hope you like this


	15. ALMOST

Once again, Sienna sat near the lake, sitting on a rock, her elbows propped up on her knees and her chin on her hands, staring into the lake. The sun was just beginning to set, it shone upon the lake and it cast a golden glow on the castle.

‘I haven’t seen you anywhere lately,’ said a voice behind her. She turned her head to see Fred standing right beside her, with his hands on his pockets. 

‘I’ve been studying a lot for N.E.W.T.s.’ She shrugged and moved aside, so he could sit next to her.

‘Nerd,’ he joked, sitting on the rock too. 

‘I’m not a nerd, I just worry about my future.’

‘Sounds like a nerd to me,’ he teased, smiling at her.

‘Where’s your other half?’ She asked, feeling like there was no point in arguing that she wasn’t a nerd, she knew she wouldn’t win that argument.

‘George? He’s with Lee, I think.’

‘You didn’t invite him to come here with you?’

‘No, I wanted to talk to  _ you. _ ’ 

‘Oh… what did you want to talk about?’ She turned her head to the lake again, wrapping her arms around her legs.

‘I didn’t have anything in mind actually, I just thought… it’s been a while since we last talked.’ Since Christmas, he had counted. He shrugged and stared at the lake too. ‘Why do you come here so often?’

‘I don’t know, I just like the way the sunset shines on the lake. You know… when I leave Hogwarts I don’t want to remember all the drama, bad lessons, and detentions, I want to remember  _ this _ , and my friends, of course.’

‘Will I be included in the list of friends you want to remember?’ He asked tentatively.

‘Don’t be a moron, of course you’ll be.’ She rolled her eyes, but smiled at him anyway.

He smiled at her, a useless part of his mind noticed she looked beautiful with the light of the sunset shining upon her, but he quickly shoved that thought aside. ‘So, how have you been?’

‘Stressed, mostly. With all the tests coming up and my parents-’

‘Did they send you any more letters?’

‘No, I’m just a bit worried.’ She shrugged. She’d wondered if she really wanted to talk about her parents with Fred, out of all people, but she thought it couldn’t hurt.

‘Worried? About them?’ Fred furrowed his brows.

‘Well, yeah, now that You-Know-Who’s back my father had to go back to his side. As much as I’d like to never see their faces again, I still don’t want them to get hurt,’ she admitted. 

‘I can’t believe you.’ He lifted himself up from the rock, a hand running through his hair. The calm tone of their conversation suddenly died. ‘Are you really serious right now?’

‘Yes, they’re my family, Fred. I can’t help but still care whether they’re still breathing or not!’

‘Do they? Do they care if  _ you’re  _ still breathing or not? Because last time I checked, they didn’t!’ He argued, his hands on his hips. Sienna noted he looked a bit like his mother when he was angry, she would have laughed at that if he wasn’t being such a moron.

‘You don’t know that!’

‘I know enough! You shouldn’t care about them-’

‘They’re my family! How could I not?’

‘They’re not your family anymore! How can you not understand that? Just because you’re related to them that doesn’t mean you’re family!’ He countered, frustrated. ‘Family cares about you, they don’t abandon you and tell you not to come home for Christmas.’

Fred knew he had just poked on one of Sienna’s open wounds, he knew he shouldn’t have said that, but he needed to get some sense into her head, no matter what he had to say.

Sienna felt her eyes burning, tears were fighting to come out, but she refused to cry in front of him. Or in front of anyone at all. ‘You shouldn’t have come here.’

He chewed on the insides of his cheeks, stuffing his hands on his pockets again, debating on whether he should keep arguing or just leave her alone. He decided on the latter. ‘I hope you see the truth some day,’ he said and turned his back to her.

When she knew he was far away, she let the tears slide down her cheeks, wishing he could understand her.

_ +++++ _

This time, before going to her Occlumency lesson, Avalon had asked Nott to wait for her at the Astronomy tower, she knew she would probably leave the lesson feeling kind of shaken up and she didn’t want anyone to see that, and she was sure the tower would be empty at the time.

When she finally arrived at Snape’s office that evening Harry was just coming out of the lesson, and he looked like he’d just seen a ghost.

‘Harry, what happened?’ Avalon asked, concern flickering in her eyes.

‘I… I’ll tell you later,’ answered Harry, avoiding her gaze.

‘Did Snape do something to you?’ Her fists clenched at her sides at the thought.

‘No, I just… I saw something I didn’t want to see.’ Harry shook his head and sighed. ‘Did you know that our dad was a prick?’

‘What?’ She furrowed her brows, clearly caught off-guard by his question. ‘How did you even get to that conclusion?’

‘I saw Snape’s memories of him.’

She scoffed loudly. ‘You shouldn’t judge our father by  _ his  _ memories. I’m not saying dad wasn’t a prick, maybe he was, but maybe Snape’s memories aren’t all there was to him, maybe he was different than what you saw.’  _ Maybe.  _ Avalon would not believe anything Snape said or  _ showed  _ about their father, but there was a part of her that wondered if James was not as good as she thought he was.

He nodded, but didn’t seem entirely convinced. ‘Well, good luck in there,’ he said and walked away, leaving Avalon alone in the corridor.

She stormed into Snape’s office as soon as Harry was out of sight, closing the door behind her. ‘What did you show him?’ She questioned in a demanding tone.

‘I told you to call me  _ sir  _ or  _ professor,  _ Potter,’ he reminded her coolly, sitting at his desk.

‘What did you show him,  _ sir?’  _ She repeated, impatiently.

‘I didn’t show him anything, your brother decided to go peering into the Pensieve while I was away.’

‘What did he see?’

‘That’s not what we’re here to discuss, Potter,’ he said flatly and Avalon knew she would not get anything else out of that conversation.

She contained herself to simply rolling her eyes as discreetly as she could and sat on the chair in front of Snape’s desk. Snape rose from his chair, he grabbed his wand and then, proceeded to drop a few more memories into Dumbledore’s Pensieve.

‘Get up, Potter,’ he ordered once he had put away the Pensieve.

The first words on her tongue were  _ ‘I don’t take orders from you.’  _ but, instead of saying that, she bit her lip and pushed herself to her feet.

‘Close your mind.’ 

That was the only thing he said before he cast the spell.

This time, however, his spell found a mental wall, tall and unbreakable, keeping Snape from seeing any of her memories. Avalon grinned, mostly to herself. All it took was a push in her mind and Snape was out of it. She’d practiced shutting her mind after that dream about Arthur Weasley, she didn’t want to see that again, so she decided to focus herself on creating her own mental barriers.

‘So, you practiced,’ he observed coolly, ‘I can’t say the same about your brother.’ A malicious smirk made its way to his face.

‘Why did you have to learn Occlumency,  _ sir _ ?’ Avalon questioned in a mocking tone.  _ Anything to get on his nerves.  _ ‘Was it to keep You-Know-Who out of your head? Or was it to keep Dumbledore from knowing where your loyalty truly lies?’

She knew Snape would curse her for that question, but she thought spending a few days in the Hospital Wing was worth it. She saw all the blood drain from his face, his lips were trembling in rage. She didn’t do so much as flinch.

Avalon saw Snape raise his hand. And then, he was inside her mind again and she was too distracted to remember to build her mental walls back up.

That familiar corridor, a recurring dream… Ginny lying dead on the Chamber of Secrets, Avalon had been too late to save her… Harry had the Basilisk’s poison running through his veins, and Fawkes hadn’t been there to save him… They’d gotten Sirius, the dementors had already kissed him… Too late, she was too late… It wasn’t Cedric lying dead on the ground.  _ No.  _ It was Harry… She couldn’t stop it, any of it… She kneeled on the cold floor, her hands bound behind her back. Powerless. Pathetic. Nott was a few steps ahead of her, also kneeled on the floor, his eyes full of fear. Voldemort was behind him, a knife in his hand. With one swift movement of his hand, there was blood everywhere and Nott’s body was on the ground… Cold. Lifeless…

An ear-splitting scream pulled her out of her head. Her own scream.

She knelt on the floor of Snape’s office, every part of her body shaking furiously, her nails digging so hard into her palm she was sure her hands were one moment away from actually being wounded.

Snape stood in front of her, his skin still white with rage. ‘Out of my office, Potter. There will be no more lessons for you or your brother.’

_ +++++ _

The Astronomy tower. She knew Nott waited there for her. She had to tell him. She had to tell him everything this time.

She scrambled out of Snape’s office and made her way to the tower as fast as her legs could take her. A few students walked by her in the halls and outright stared at her, but she paid no attention to them, she had other things in her mind.

Avalon was still shaking when she reached the Astronomy tower and her face had been drained from all color. Her legs felt like jelly. Nott was leaning over the railings, staring down at the school grounds. The moment she arrived, he turned to her, a small smile on his face.

The small knot on her throat slowly disappeared, she hadn’t even realized it had been there until now that she could breathe properly. Avalon walked towards him and flung her arms around his torso.

‘Avalon… What’s wrong?’ He asked, wrapping his arms around her and frowning.

‘Don’t talk, just… stay here,’ she murmured. Her head pressed against his chest and she could hear his heart beating.  _ Alive, he’s alive,  _ she kept chanting in her head, almost as if she were trying to convince herself of that.

He gave her a single nod. One of his hands slid down to the small of her back and the other went up to her hair. His fingers ran through her hair and, slowly, she felt her body stop shaking and her own heartbeat slow down.

‘Will you tell me what’s wrong now?’ He asked. He wouldn’t push her if she didn’t want to talk, but he needed to at least try to know what was wrong with her. Being concerned about her well-being was almost his second nature at this point.

She took a step back, away from him, although every inch of her body urged her to fall back into his embrace. ‘I… There’s something you need to know,’ she spoke softly, silently. She looked down at her feet, she didn’t know what to do with her arms, she felt like it looked really dumb to just let them hang at her sides, so she stuffed her hands inside her pockets.

‘What did you do?’ Nott raised his eyebrows at her. The small distance between them still unnerved him, but he decided not to mention it.

It was her turn to frown. ‘Why do you think I did something?’

‘Because you’re always involved in some kind of trouble.’ 

_ Trouble magnet,  _ she thought.

‘It’s not my fault trouble keeps finding me.’

‘My point still stands.’ He shrugged, but grinned at her. ‘What did you want to tell me, then?’ He leaned back against the wall.

‘Right, yeah…’ She took a few steps back and began pacing around the room, her eyes avoiding his. ‘I have… I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, about telling you this, but it never seemed to be the right moment, there was always something stopping us… me.’

She risked a quick look at him. His expression was warm, curious, which made her think he really had no idea of what she was about to say, because if he did, she was sure he’d be looking at her with anger on his face, he’d hate her.

She faced the ground again, still pacing. It helped her think. ‘I came to this… realization a while ago, but I was hesitant to tell you because I didn’t know how you’d respond,’ she went on, his face was unreadable to her. ‘Today during that class with Snape I realized that I had to tell you, because… because I saw you die.’

‘W-what?’ Nott took a step towards her, his eyes followed her around while she walked in circles.

‘I had that nightmare before. This time when he got into my head he saw a few of my nightmares, including the one where you die and I can do nothing to stop it...’

‘Avalon… I’m alive, you don’t-’

‘That’s not the point.’ She shook her head as she stopped pacing around the room, finally gathering the courage to face him and look into his worried eyes. ‘When I saw you… your body… dead on the floor...’ She shuddered as the images of his lifeless body ran through her mind once again and she closed her eyes for a moment. ‘When I saw that, I finally convinced myself that I couldn’t hide my feelings anymore.’

His head tilted to the side, but he did not dare to say a word.

She took a deep breath, wiping her hands on her robes, switching from one foot to another. ‘I like you, I really,  _ really _ do, and I don’t mean that as a friend... usually, I can just shove my feelings deep inside and push everyone away, you know that very well.’ She looked to the side, she couldn’t face him, not when she was pouring her feelings out like that, but now that she had begun talking, she could not stop.

‘I like you more than I have ever liked anyone else,’ she went on, ‘and it drives me mad how I can’t just stay away from you. I wanted to. I wanted to drive you away so you wouldn’t get close, so I wouldn’t get personal with you, so I wouldn’t get attached to you, but now I am. But I couldn’t stay away from you, from the moment we met, you’re like a bloody magnet and it’s driving me mad, and I hate it!’ She realized now how frustrated she had been. She took a deep breath, trying to even out her own heartbeats. ‘There its is, I like you and I understand if you don’t return my feelings, I understand if you want to stay the hell away from me and I respect that. I won’t force you to be around me, but I had to tell you this because it was killing me inside... I’m sorry.’

Avalon felt out of breath and just now she realized how fast she’d been talking. She felt extremely vulnerable, she felt like this was worse than dancing naked in front of the whole school, she felt like he could see right through her and it drove her up the wall. She ran her hands over her face, sighing.  _ Please say something, _ she begged silently,  _ and please don’t hate me. _

She saw the corners of his mouth turn upwards, as he stared at her, something Avalon couldn’t quite name was flickering in his eyes. 

Nott grabbed her wrists and pulled her back into his embrace, still without saying a thing, to Avalon’s ever growing frustration. ‘ _ Lily,  _ don’t ever think, even for a moment, that I would leave you, that I wouldn’t want you to be around me, I could never imagine myself without you,  _ please,  _ don’t ever think that,’ he said, like it actually hurt him that she thought he wouldn’t want her in his life, that she thought he’d ever be able to hate her.

She looked up at him, her eyes locking on his. He tucked a strand of her behind her ear, a small smile on his face. ‘How did you never notice?’ She tilted her head in confusion as he spoke. ‘How did you never notice I’ve only ever had eyes for you? I could never get you out of my head, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself you were just my friend and nothing else. And as lame as that sounds, I think I have always liked you, since day one.'

She felt her heart hammering inside of her chest, but she didn’t care, all she cared about at that moment was him, his eyes on hers, his fingers brushing her cheek, the warmth of his hand against her cold skin. 

She took his hand on hers and entwined her fingers with his. She stood on her tiptoes, cut the small distance between them, and pressed her lips to his, slowly, gently, waiting for any sign he might not want that.

He left one of his hands on her cheek, the other slid around her waist and pulled her closer to him, pressing their bodies together, while her hands slid up his chest and rested on his shoulders.

When they parted, their foreheads were still pressed onto each other, his arms around her. His smell almost intoxicated her.  _ Home and safety,  _ that’s what it reminded her of.

‘I’m sorry it took me so long to say all those things,’ she said quietly.

‘I kept all of my feelings from you too.’ He smiled apologetically, his fingers running down her hair. ‘But don’t hide anything from me, ever again.’

She nodded, a silent promise. ‘Just so you know, I could never imagine myself without you either.’


	16. THE WEASLEY RIOT

‘Sienna!’ 

She whipped her head around, coming to a halt halfway through the corridor. Her eyes laid on Fred, standing alone in front of her, looking disheveled. Her heart skipped a beat as she recalled the last time they’d encountered.

‘What do you want?’ She asked, her tone had been meaner than she intended it to be, but she decided she did not care.

He looked taken aback by the tone of her voice. ‘I came here to apologize for the way I acted, I should’ve been more - err… considerate.’

She lifted her eyebrows and waved her hand for him to continue.

‘What? I came here to say I was sorry and I just did!’

‘No, you didn’t. That wasn’t an apology.’

Fred sighed and rolled his eyes as discreetly as he could. 

Clearly, Sienna saw it, because she turned around and began to walk away.  _ Idiot,  _ she thought.

‘Wait! Sienna!’ He ran towards her and grabbed her wrist, spinning her around to face him. ‘I’m sorry… I’m just not good at dealing with… you know, usually, if I screw up I just wait until people eventually get over it… and when you didn’t  _ get over it  _ I knew I had to apologize, so I’m sorry I said those things to you, I know how families can be complicated, and even though I don’t think you should give a fuck about them-’

‘Watch where you’re going with this,’ she warned.

He merely grinned at her, his fingers brushing at her wrist. ‘I understand why you still care about them… so, again, I’m sorry for the way I acted.’

‘Well, you sure did act like an asshole,’ she said, looking down at their hands.

‘Do you forgive me?’ He asked, tentatively.

‘If I don’t forgive you I have a feeling you’ll keep chasing me until I do, so do I have another choice?’ Besides, she missed talking to him, but she wasn’t going to admit that.

‘No, I don’t think you do.’ He chuckled.

She smiled at him. ‘I have to go to class now, see you around?’

‘Wait, there’s another thing I need to tell you,’ he said, finally letting go of her hand. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding on for that long. ‘George and I are leaving.’

‘What? What do you mean by leaving?’ She frowned at him, scanning his face for any sign that something was wrong.

‘With Dumbledore gone… this school isn’t for us anymore, so we’re going to pull one last prank, one that’s going to make Umbridge want to rip her own hair off, and-’

‘And then you’ll get expelled,’ she guessed.

‘Correct.’

‘Then, I’m going with you,’ she said firmly.

‘No, you’re not.’

She scoffed. ‘You can’t tell me what to do, Weasley!’ 

‘I will tie you up to a tree if I have to, but you won’t go,’ he said and she looked at him with an incredulous look. ‘You want to be a healer, you told me so yourself. I may not care about school, but I know you do. You’ve been studying so hard for the N.E.W.T.s, I won’t let you throw that away now.’

She looked up at him, grinning slightly. She’d never seen him get so flared up on her behalf, it made his eyes light up, like there was a wildfire in them. 

Sienna had never thought he cared enough wether she got in trouble or not, she was always the first to jump in head-first whenever they had an idea for a prank and Fred had never stopped her before.

‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ he asked, and, to Fred’s utter shock, she grabbed him by the front of his robes and kissed him. 

His hands were on her waist almost as soon as their lips touched. The kiss was fast and fierce, they did not care about the students who were walking by and staring at them, and when they parted, they were both flushed and breathless.

‘What was that for?’ He breathed out, smiling at her.

‘Consider it a goodbye gift.’ She patted him in the chest, grinning. ‘I’m glad you told me not to follow you, but don’t ever tell me what to do again.’

‘Can’t promise anything,’ he said and the look she gave him almost made him back away a few steps, ‘fine, I won’t do it, I promise.’

‘Good.’ Her mouth curved into a smile again. ‘Now go raise some hell.’

He nodded, smirking, and walked away. She didn’t know what he was about to do, but she knew that whatever it was, it would make Umbridge regret ever setting foot on that school.

_ +++++ _

It was just like the night when Trelawney had been sacked. Students were standing all around the walls in a great ring (some of them covered in a substance that looked very like Stinksap); teachers and ghosts were also in the crowd. Prominent among the onlookers were members of the Inquisitorial Squad, who were all looking exceptionally pleased with themselves, and Peeves, who was bobbing overhead, gazed down at Fred and George who stood in the middle of the floor with the unmistakable look of two people who had just been cornered.

‘So!’ said Umbridge triumphantly. ‘So - you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?’

‘Pretty amusing, yeah,’ said Fred, looking up at her without the slightest sign of fear. Sienna smiled proudly from where she watched.

Sienna felt someone poke her in the ribs. She turned her head to the side to see Avalon standing there, an amused look on her face. Sienna had no idea how she’d managed to make her way through that crowd of students, although she guessed Avalon’s short stature made it easier for her.

‘Did you know about  _ this _ ?’ Avalon asked, waving her hand towards Fred and George.

‘Fred told me about it earlier.’

‘And you’re not with them,’ she observed, ‘why?’

‘He asked me to stay.’ Sienna shrugged. Avalon stared at her for a few more seconds, then seemed to have decided not to ask anything else.

Filch elbowed his way closer to Umbridge, almost crying with happiness. 

‘I’ve got the form, Headmistress,’ he said hoarsely, waving a piece of parchment. ‘I’ve got the form and I’ve got the whips waiting ... oh, let me do it now ...’

‘Very good, Argus,’ she said. ‘You two,’she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, ‘are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school.’

‘You know what?’said Fred. ‘I don’t think we are.’

He turned to his twin.

‘George,’ said Fred, ‘I think we’ve outgrown full-time education.’

‘Yeah, I’ve been feeling that way myself,’ said George lightly.

‘Time to test our talents in the real world, d’you reckon?’ asked Fred.

‘Definitely,’ said George.

And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wands and said together:

‘ _ Accio brooms _ !’

There was a loud crash somewhere in the distance. Fred and George’s broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg with which Umbridge had fastened them to the wall, were hurtling along the corridor towards their owners; they turned left, streaked down the stairs and stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.

‘We won’t be seeing you,’ Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.

‘Yeah, don’t bother to keep in touch,’ said George, mounting his own.

Fred looked around at the assembled students, at the silent, watchful crowd. When his eyes landed on Sienna he gave a silent nod and smiled.

‘If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley - Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes,’ he said in a loud voice. ‘Our new premises!’

‘Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they’re going to use our products to get rid of this old bat,’ added George, pointing at Professor Umbridge.

‘STOP THEM!’ shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd. 

‘Give her hell from us, Peeves.’

And Peeves, who had never taken an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

_ +++++ _

Fred and George had made sure nobody was likely to forget them too soon. For one thing, they had not left instructions on how to remove the swamp that now filled the corridor on the fifth floor of the east wing. Umbridge and Filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. Eventually, the area was roped off and Filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across it to their classrooms. Teachers like McGonagall or Flitwick could have removed the swamp in an instant but, just as in the case of Fred and George’s Wildfire Whiz-bangs, they seemed to prefer to watch Umbridge struggle.

Then there were the two large broom-shaped holes in Umbridge’s office door, through which Fred and George’s Cleansweeps had smashed to rejoin their masters.

Inspired by Fred and George’s example, a great number of students were now vying for the newly vacant positions of Troublemakers-in-Chief. In spite of the new door, somebody managed to slip a hairy-snouted Niffler into Umbridge’s office, which promptly tore the place apart in its search for shiny objects, leapt on Umbridge when she entered and tried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers. Dungbombs and Stink Pellets were dropped so frequently in the corridors that it became the new fashion for students to perform Bubble-Head Charms on themselves before leaving lessons, which ensured them a supply of fresh air, even though it gave them all the peculiar appearance of wearing upside-down goldfish bowls on their heads.

Filch prowled the corridors with a horsewhip ready in his hands, desperate to catch miscreants, but the problem was that there were now so many of them he never knew which way to turn. The Inquisitorial Squad was attempting to help him, but odd things kept happening to its members. Warrington of the Slytherin Quidditch team reported to the hospital wing with a horrible skin complaint that made him look as though he had been coated in cornflakes; Pansy Parkinson missed all her lessons the following day as she had sprouted antlers.

Olivia could not care less for any of it, the school could burn to the ground for all she cared. Blaise had not spoken to her since the day she told him about what happened during Christmas. Everytime she tried to approah Blaise he managed to find an excuse to leave, it was either ‘oh, I have homework to catch up on!’ or ‘oh, I’m pretty sure Nott is calling me, see you around!’ or he’d just completely ignore her presence and walk away.

Throughout her life, Olivia had wanted to punch or hex a lot of people, it never took much for her to get annoyed or angry, but she had never been mad at Blaise. But now, she wanted to punch him so hard he’d see stars, maybe then, once he woke up, he’d talk to her.

She found him in the library, napping on top of a book, he had drooled so much over the pages of the book Madam Pince would probably have to throw it in the garbage, after giving Blaise a lifetime ban from the library.

She slid into the chair in front of his, not bothering to be silent as she dropped her bag on the table. ‘I’m awake!’ He said, as he jolted up, wiping the drool away from the corner of his mouth with the sleeve of his robes.

‘Ah, Olivia… I didn’t see you there,’ he began, closing the book and putting it on top of three other books that were stacked on the table, ‘I was about to go I have-’

‘Let me guess, you have homework to do? Or some friend is calling you?’ She said sharply, ‘just try to find a better excuse this time, will you?’

‘I wasn’t going to-’

‘Cut the crap, Blaise!’ She retorted,loud enough that few students to shot wary glances at them. ‘I know you’ve been avoiding me, so tell me, was it something I did? Something I said?’

‘Olivia… it wasn’t you, I just… needed time.’ He lifted his shoulders, it was almost a shrug, but not quite, it was like he was trying to show he was indeed guilty.

‘Time for what?’ 

‘I needed time to be away from you.’

She frowned. ‘Why?’

‘Because… I couldn’t deal with my feelings,’ he confessed. Olivia furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. ‘I have feelings for you, Olivia, and when I couldn’t tell that to you that day after I came from Hogsmeade… I decided I needed to spend some time away.’

‘Well, maybe you should’ve just told me!’

‘You’re… angry?’ He asked, but her expression already answered his question. ‘Olivia, you have no right to be angry at me, it was my decision not to tell you and-’

‘You had no right to just ignore me with no further explanation, Blaise! I’m your best friend, you don’t do that kind of shit to me!’ She fumed, pushing herself to her feet.

Blaise stood up too, anger flickering in his eyes. ‘Is that really what you’re angry about? I just told you I have feelings for you and this is your reaction?’

They heard a distant  _ ‘shhh!’  _ from Madam Pince, but ignored it entirely. 

‘Yes, you’re my  _ friend,  _ Blaise!’ She shouted and he felt like she had just punched him on the face. ‘Friends do not ignore each other!’

He’d confessed his feelings to her. And she rejected him.

‘You don’t feel-’

‘No,’ she interrupted, ‘I see you as my friend, that’s all.’

He felt his shoulders sag, but tried to keep his head held high. He took a step to the side and pushed the chair back to its place. ‘I guess I did the right thing by staying away then.’

He picked his things up and walked out of the library, leaving her alone, hands gripping the table, her chest heaving, and her eyes still burning with anger.

Maybe she’d been lying to herself about her own feelings, but she didn’t care, he had hurt her by ignoring her, and a selfish, mean part of her wanted him to feel the same way she did. So, she did not follow him, she did not even mention his name in the following days, she pretended he didn’t exist, just as he had done.


End file.
